126 



NA 7 URE 



[June 7, 1894 



the commiitee by putting aside the opinion of the 

 present Director-General of Military Education as 

 that of a person of little present importance on 

 this question, by ignoring the high classical acquire- 

 ments of Mr. Roby, who is a distinguished scholar and 

 the author of a standard Latin grammar, and by dismiss- 

 ing Sir Henry Koscoe, with his great educational ex- 

 perience on the Scotch University Commission and on 

 other occasions, as though he were an ordinary Member 

 of Parliament with no special experience or weight on 

 a question of this kind. .All these facts combine to make 

 it important that we should place the matter fully and in 

 a true light before our readers. 



In order to form a just judgment on the recommenda- 

 tions of the committee, it is necessary to do just that 

 which the Times has not done. Each of the proposed 

 changes must be considered on its own merits, in relation 

 to the other subjects, to the needs of the various branches 

 of the Service, and to the present teaching powers of the 

 most advanced public schools. 



We must first point out that the recommendation that 

 chemistry and heat shall be required in future from all 

 Woolwich candidates stands upon a footing which is in 

 many respects different, and altogether independent of 

 that upon which the other recommendation stands. 



In the first place, this recommendation is adopted 

 by every member of the committee except one. And 

 even he, in his dissent, admits that for Woolwich 

 some degree of further specialising is necessary, and 

 makes a recommendation for the purpose of effecting 

 it. Unfortunately his proposal would pretty certainly 

 fail of its purpose ; it is quite unsound, and was, we think 

 rightly, not adopted by the rest of the committee. 



Secondly, it is not advised that science should be made 

 a compulsory subject for the Army in the same sense as 

 that in which Latin has of late years been compulsory. 

 It is not proposed to require it of all candidates, but only 

 of those who are admitted to the scientiiic branches. 



These, we need hardly point out, form only a minority 

 of the whole. No one need be kept out of the Army 

 through ignorance of science, and those who are really 

 strong in other subjects will not even be kept out of the 

 Artillery and Engineers by this regulation if it be 

 adopted. 



Thirdly, as what follows will show, science for Woolwich 

 was strongly supported by most of the head masters 

 who assisted the committee with their opinions. Thus, 

 Dr. Percival, of Rugby, included obligatory science in a 

 scheme of examination which he offered for considera- 

 tion, and said that he thought any school which is worth 

 considering would bring its candidates up to a very fair 

 level in science before they entered Woolwich or Sand- 

 hurst ; and explained that he meant not only the larger, 

 but almost all schools. 



The Rev. J. E. C. Welldon, of Harrow, included a 

 branch of science in a list of obligatory subjects which 

 he considereJ should enter into the education of every 

 English gentleman. 



Mr. Phillpotls, of liedford, did not advise compulsory 

 science, but he expressed a wish that the chemistry 

 marks should be raised to 2500, which experience has 

 shown in effect almost make this subject an obligatory 

 one. 



The head master of St. Paul's suggested in a letter 

 that a branch of experimental science should be raised 

 to Class 1. with 2000 marks for Woolwich candidates. 



The head master of Westward Mo wrote that he be- 

 lieved that nothing short of the inclusion of a science 

 among " obligatory subjects " will bring about satisfactory 

 results. 



The head master of Lorctto placed science on his 

 optional list ; but said that but for geography he is not 

 sure if some power of practical work should not be placed 

 among the necessary subjects, and stated that he longs 



NO. 1284, VOL. 50] 



to see practical chemistry introduced into the regular 

 curriculum of schools. 



Only two head masters said nothing in support of 

 science subjects for Woolwich. .And finally. Prof. Jebb 

 has lately expressed to the Secretary of State for War 

 his opinion that the scientific study and the linguistic 

 studies should be put on an equal footing in respect to 

 these examinations. 



With this evidence before them, with complaints 

 alike from schools and on the part of the Professor of 

 Experimental Science at Woolwich, of a waste of time 

 and power there in regard to science teaching, which 

 makes itself felt even in Class I., and which is 

 inevitable under the present system, and with ample 

 testimony to the increasing importance of science to the 

 scientific branches, could any impartial body of advisers 

 have made a more reasonable and more modest recom- 

 mendation than that which the Army Examinations 

 Committee has made to Parliament ? 



As regards the influence this change would have upon 

 the curriculum of our" most advanced public schools," and 

 the possibility that it may drive boys from the schools 

 to the crammer, which our contemporary seems greatly to 

 fear, what we wonder would be said by Rugby. Chelten- 

 ham, Clifton, .Marlborough, St. Paul's, or by Westward 

 Ho, Malvern, Dover, and a score of other schools, if it 

 were suggested to them that their appliances for and 

 power of teaching science were inferior to those of the 

 private tutors .' 1 1 is notorious that the contrary is the case, 

 that for long past the schools have held more than 

 their own in these respects, and that the school of moderate 

 size that is not now able to give good elementary 

 instruction in chemistry and heat, is so far from being 

 amongst our most advanced schools that it must be 

 pronounced to be one that is unmistakably behind the 

 times. 



Finally, the selection of subjects made by the committee 

 is not only a good one, but under the circumstances seems 

 the best that could be made. It will not discourage cither 

 chemistry or physics entirely in the schools, and there 

 areschools which prefer each of these branches; it is within 

 the scope of the resources of all thoroughly etticient 

 schools, which some other selections might not have been; 

 and, above all, si nee it corresponds well with the elementary 

 courses of instruction that have been in force at Woolwich, 

 it will best avoid the loss of time there, which has been 

 already alluded to, and will permit the cadets at once to 

 proceed to those sciences of which they will need a 

 technical and advanced knowledge, such as electricity 

 and the chemistry of explosives, and for which more 

 time and a better state of preparedness at entrance is 

 said to be greatly wanted. 



The recommendation to place Latin in Class II., as we 

 have said, needs separate consideration. It must be ad- 

 mitted that there was a considerable body of evidence 

 against it, and a division of opinion on the subject among 

 the members of the committee. The iiuestion is one 

 of great difficulty. It would have been impossible 

 to retain compulsory Latin for Sandhurst without 

 practically coinpellmg it for Woolwich also. .All who are 

 experienced in these examinations will admit this. But to 

 have retained it for Woolwich would have tended very 

 greatly to limit the range of subjects taken by these 

 cadets. It cannot be said that Latin is professionally an 

 essential subject for Army candidates, as a few others are ; 

 and even the Times admits that possibly its study may 

 not be "an ideal whetstone of the mind," whilst it is cer- 

 tain that a good many youths do not appear to gain much 

 from it after boyhood is past. Its early introduction into 

 education, and its retention up to a certain point, are, 

 on the other hand, widely thought to be among the best 

 features of the public school system. There is also a feeling 

 that it serves as an excellent introduction to the study of 

 languages, and doubtless it does so when well taught. But 



