i86 



NATURE 



[December 21, 189; 



It has been remarked that the Department of Science and 

 Art is throwing its responsibility to some extent upon the 

 County Councils. The West Riding Committee estimates 

 that by the withdrawal of grants for apparatus and second-class 

 students, an expenditure of more than ^3, 500 has been shifted to 

 their Yorkshire Council. It is justly complained that "the 

 changes have been carried out without in any way considering 

 the views of the County Council. It is clearly necessary that 

 some distinct understanding should be arrived at as to the 

 spheres to be respectively occupied by County Councils and 

 the several Government departments, including the Education 

 Departriient, the Science and Art Department, and the Agri- 

 cultural Department, or it may be found that the funds specially 

 granted to the County Councils for the purpose of technical 

 instruction are being largely absorbed in carrying out the work 

 hitherto devolving upon Government departments." 



To some extent, however, the departments referred to are 

 completely justified in their action. Thus, instruction in 

 elementary science can very well be relegated to local authorities, 

 and so leave the Department ot Science and Art to foster more 

 advanced work. This brings us to another point, viz. the system 

 of payment by results. Any other system involves the employ- 

 ment of a large staff of inspectors, and the question then arises 

 as to whether the close inspection required ought to be carried 

 on by the County Councils or by Government officials. It is 

 the opinion of many directors of technical instruction that a 

 Government official is in a better and more independent position 

 for doing such work than a county official. Usually the work 

 of inspection done on behalf of most counties is small. In the 

 case of the West Riding Committee a number of inspectors have 

 been appointed, and the grants made to classes, schools, and 

 institutions under its jurisdiction take the form of capitation 

 grants, depending, not upon the instruction given, nor upon 

 the number and size of the classes at each school or institution, 

 but upon the attendance and work of the individual pupils and 

 students. This admirable system is certainly worthy of extended 

 application. 



The Union of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes has done 

 much to promote primary, secondary, and technical education 

 in Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Derbyshire, and to con- 

 solidate the various associations that exist in those counties. 

 The Union acts as an examining board, and offers special prizes 

 and exhibitions for the encouragement of science and art. As 

 evidence of the importance of the Union, and the great activity 

 shown in the cause of technical and secondary education, it is 

 sufficient to say that 12S institutes are afifiiliated to it, with a 

 membership of over 100,000, and upwards of 8o,OCO students 

 attending evening classes, and at the examinations held this year 

 10,700 papers were worked. These facts are enough to indicate 

 that the Union has become an important examining authority in 

 Lancashire ar.d Cheshire. It is satisfactory to know, therefore, 

 that the governing council fully recognises the necessity of good 

 teaching and a thorough systematic scheme of education. It is to 

 some extent owing to the existence of this Union that Lancashire 

 ranks among the counties doing the best educational work. 

 Cumberland and Durham are also developing excellent and com- 

 prehensive schemes of instruction. 



Passing now to the southern counties, we find that Kent has 

 been largely spending its money upon University Extension 

 Lectures. The following extract from a rejiort of one of the 

 lecturers is therefore of interest : — 



" AUhou^h the last two years' experience in Kent must have 

 convinced all of the great possibilities of technical education in 

 rural districts, yet at present the success is but partial, and the 

 results ephemeral, owing to the isolation and want of continuiiy 

 of the various educational ventures in process of trial. To 

 achieve real educational results, local classes under local teachers 

 should be formed in each village centre. Laboratory accom- 

 modation of a simple and inexpensive nature should be pro- 

 vided, and from time to time a course of lectures by an experi- 

 enced lecturer might supplement the local class, and serve to 

 arouse general sympathy, interest, and enthusiasm. 



" Most emphatically would I urge, with the whole conviction 

 of past experiences, the absolute necessity for practical labora- 

 tory instruction as a part of any scheme for the teaching of 

 chemistry. To make technical education a real servant to the 

 national weal, and a sound branch of educational progress, it 

 will be necessary to connect, systematise, and unify the varied 

 educational machinery employed. The successful founding of 

 village laboratories and classes, under capable instructors, will 



make it possible for a village lad to place his foot upon the first 

 rung of a ladder that will raise him through urban technical 

 institutes or county colleges to the higher levels of scientific 

 and technical instruction. 



"As an extension lecturer, I feel bound to confess that, 

 standing alone face to face with the problem of technical 

 education in rural districts, our present system is doomed to 

 failure unless supported by an adequate system of local teaching, 

 and, as a student of science, I feel convinced of the absolute 

 impossibility of imparting an intelligent group of scientific 

 principles capable of practical application and utility unless 

 such instruction be supplemented by courses of practical and 

 experimental study." 



This is a right view to take. The function of the extension 

 lecturer is that of a pioneer in the case of science, whatever 

 it may be with literature. There is no doubt that in the classes 

 held after extension lectures, the lecturer assumes more the 

 part of a teacher by being brought into closer contact with the 

 students, but even then it is doubtful whether he is often re- 

 garded as more than a popular exponent of elementary 

 principles. 



The Technical Instruction Committee of the Surrey County 

 Council is a very strong one, and its efforts have been attended 

 with a remarkable measure of success. In the tenth report 

 of the committee, however, it is remarked with regard to the 

 science classes : ' ' There is probably no branch of the work more 

 educationally important than this, and in Surrey, as in other 

 counties, it has been found that there is none which meets with 

 more passive opposition from the public, and, perhaps, costs 

 more, in consequence of the entire lack of efficient teachers in 

 the localities themselves." We are afraid that this is very true. 

 That undefinable quantity — the general public — may attend 

 science lectures of which the main features are magic-lantern 

 illustrations, or explosions and pretty experiments ; but that is 

 quite a different matter from attending classes requiring close 

 study. We do not for an instant hold that popular science lectures 

 are not productive of good. By their influence the commonality 

 are brought to know something of the poetry of science, and 

 are set thinking about nature's laws and wonders. What we do 

 contend, however, is that such discourses must be regarded as 

 of a recreative character, calculated more to interest and amuse 

 than to give a clear view of the true inwardness of scientific things. 

 The general public wants variety and highly-coloured facts, and 

 a very small proportion indeed are inclined to take upon them- 

 selves the drudgery of hard study. Technical Instruction 

 Committees should remember, therefore, that though the 

 attendance at classes may be small in comparison with that at 

 lectures, the students are mostly workers who take up science 

 seriously, and with the full knowledge that many difficulties 

 must be met and overcome. It is upon this class of the com- 

 munity that all schemes of technical instruction depend for their 

 success. As to the second point raised in the above extract, 

 there is little doubt that, in many counties, peripatetic teaching 

 by good teachers, who can be obtained by the payment of a 

 good salary, is preferable to entrusting the instruction to local 

 dabblers in science. This applies chiefly to country districts in 

 which science was almost unheard of before the County Councils 

 began their educational work. 



In the last scholarship report of the Surrey Committee, Mr. 

 Macan, the organising secretary, makes a gratuitous remark 

 that can by no means be substantiated. He says : " The subjects 

 which require most attention in the schools appear to be 

 chemistry, heat, and electricity, and masters are reminded that 

 the purely bookish and routine instruction, which serves to gain 

 South Kensington results, is not enough for a scholarship 

 examination." This is a cheap criticism that might well have 

 been omitted. Any teacher who has had experience of the 

 South Kensington examinations knows that great stress is laid 

 upon the practical teaching of the subjects named, and exam- 

 iners are expressly forbidden to award marks for meaningless 

 phrases such as are given by candidates with mere book know- 

 ledge. And we will say further, that any candidate who could 

 pass the elementary examinations in chemistry, heat, or elec- 

 tricity, held by the Department of Science and Art, would come 

 off with flying colours in the scholarship examination of the 

 Surrey County Council. There is not a single question upon 

 these subjects contained in any of the examination papers of 

 the Council but what a departmental examiner at the present 

 time would consider too elementary for South Kensington 

 candidates. 



NO. T260, VOL. 4q] 



