October 15, 1903] 



NATURE 



585 



give them even still greater freedom than they now enjoy. 

 These are colleges to which students from secondary schools 

 will gradually find their way, where they wish for higher 

 education of a type different from that to be gained at a 

 university. 



I have endeavoured to give a brief historical sketch of 

 what the State has done in helping forward instruction in 

 natural knowledge amongst the industrial classes, adults 

 and children, and how gradually its financial aid has been 

 extended to secondary schools. I have also endeavoured to 

 indicate the steps by which practical instruction has been 

 fostered by it. I have done this because I am confident 

 that ninety-nine educationists out of every hundred have 

 but little idea what the State has been doing for the last 

 fifty years. Some connected with secondary schools — I have 

 personal knowledge — were until lately ignorant that the 

 State had offered advantages to them of a financial nature. 

 I may say that the work of the late Science and Art De- 

 partment was largely a missionary work. It was abused, 

 sometimes rightly but more often wrongly, for this very 

 work, and it had more abusers at one time probably than 

 any other Ciovernment Department. Even friends to the 

 movement of modernising education found fault with it as 

 antiquated and slow, but I can assure you that no greater 

 mistake can be made in pressing forward any movement 

 by any hurried change of front or by endeavouring to push 

 forward matters too rapidly. In the first place, the Treasury 

 naturally views untried changes with suspicion, and this 

 fact has to be dealt with more particularly when there is 

 no great expression of public opinion to reckon with. At 

 the same time it cannot be stated too strongly that the 

 Treasury has in recent years dealt in a friendly and 

 enlightened spirit with all matters which could affect the 

 spread of science. Again, there is a hostility to great and 

 rapid changes in the minds of those whom such changes 

 affect. 



The policy must always be to progress as much as is 

 possible without rousing too great an opposition from any 

 quarter, and I think it will be seen that the progress made 

 during the last twenty-five years has, by the various annual 

 increments, been perhaps more than could have been hoped 

 for, and gives a promise for even more rapid advances in 

 the future. 



As an appendix to this Address I have given a brief 

 epitome of the increases in students, in schools, in labor- 

 atories, and in grants which have taken place since 1861. 

 If to the last be added the amount spent out of the whisky 

 money an additional half million may be reckoned. 



It will be seen that the progress made has been gradual, 

 but satisfactory, and that, if we showed some of the results 

 graphically, weighted according to the circumstances of 

 their date, and dared make an extrapolation curve of future 

 results, we should have a complete justification for pro- 

 phesying hopefully. 



The question of the supply of science teachers has already 

 been referred to. My remarks I should like to supplement 

 by saying that in the greater number of schools teachers 

 are to be found who have been trained at the Royal College 

 of .Science, and mostly at public expense — some through 

 scholarships gained by competition and some through train- 

 ing selected teachers. The success of the movement for the 

 introduction of science instruction in schools depended on 

 the proper supply of teachers, and even now the demand for 

 men possessing the highest teaching qualifications in science 

 is greater than the supply. It may be said, I think, that 

 our science teachers from the college have one special 

 qualification, and that is, that besides the knowledge of 

 science, practical and theoretical, that they have acquired 

 they have lived in an atmosphere of what is called research, 

 and which might be called original investigation. Pro- 

 fessors, assistants, and students alike are impregnated with 

 it, and when the teacher so trained takes up his duties in 

 his school he still retains the " reek " of it. True instruc- 

 tion in science should, as I have before said, be practical, 

 and practical instruction should certainly include original 

 inquiry into matters old or new. The teacher who retains 

 the " reek " is the teacher who will prove most successful. 

 It will thus be seen that the State had the task before it, 

 not only of introducing instruction in science, but of train- 

 ing teachers to give such instruction. This problem is the 

 same as now exists in Ireland, and the experience gained in 



NO. 1772, VOL. 68] 



England cannot but be of the greatest use to those at the 

 head of Irish technical education. 



Before concluding there is one subject that I must lightly 

 touch upon, and that is the supply of teachers other than 

 science teachers. The Education Act of 1870 gave the 

 power to elementary schools to train pupil teachers, who in 

 the process of time would become teachers, either by enter- 

 ing into a training college by means of a King's Scholar- 

 ship or, less satisfactorily, by examination. In large towns 

 the need of a proper training for pupil teachers has been 

 felt, and gradually pupil teacher centres were established, 

 principally by School Boards, where the training could be 

 carried oiit more or less completely ; but in the rural dis- 

 tricts and smaller towns the pupil teacher has had to be 

 more or less self-taught, and e.xcept in rare cases " self- 

 taught " means badly taught. The Training College 

 authorities make no secret of the fact that one of the two 

 years during which the training of the teacher is carried 

 out has to be devoted more or less to instructing the pupils 

 in subjects thev ought to have been taught before they 

 entered the college. Thus all the essential and special in- 

 struction which is given- has to be practically shortened, 

 and the teacher leaves the college with less training than 

 he should have. 



The new Education Act has put it in the power of the 

 educational authorities to rectify the defects in the train- 

 ing of pupil teachers. It is much to be hoped that Councils 

 will separately or in combination either form special centres 

 for the training of all pupil teachers or else give scholar- 

 ships (perhaps aided by the State) to them, to be held at 

 some secondary school receiving the grant for science and 

 recognised by the Board of Education as efficient. The 

 latter plan is one which commends itself, as it ensures that 

 the student shall associate with others who are not pre- 

 paring for the same calling in life, and will prevent that 

 narrowness of mind which is inevitable where years are 

 spent in the one atmosphere of pedagogy. The non- 

 residential training college, where the training of the 

 teacher is carried on at some university college, is an 

 attempt to give breadth of view to him, but if attempted 

 in the earliest years of a teacher's career it will be even 

 more successful. All teaching requires to be improved, and 

 the first step to take in this direction is to educate the pupil 

 teacher from his earliest day's appointment, for his in- 

 fluence in after vears will not only be felt in that elemen- 

 tary but will also penetrate into secondary education. In 

 regard to the additions which are required in elementary 

 education, and which require the proper training of the 

 pupil teacher, I must refer you to a report which will be 

 presented to the Section. The task of training pupil teachers 

 is one which requires the earnest and undivided thought of 

 the new Education Committees. , 



In the earnest Address given by my predecessor in this 

 Chair he brought forward the shortcomings of secondary 

 education and of the requirements for a military career in 

 a trenchant manner and with an ability which I cannot 

 emulate. With much of what he said I agree heartily, but 

 I cannot forget that, after all. the details of education are 

 to some extent matters of opinion, though the main features 

 are not. We must be content to see advances made in the 

 directions on which the majority of men and women 

 educational experts are agreed. Great strides have already 

 been made in educating the public both in methods and 

 subjects but a good deal more remains to be done. 



It ma'y be expected, for instance, that the registration of 

 teachers will lead to increased efficiency in secondary schools, 

 and that the would-be teacher, fresh from college, will not 

 get his training bv practising on the unfortunate children 

 he may be told off' to teach. It may also be expected that 

 such increased efficiency will have to be vouched for by 

 the thorough inspection which is now made under the board 

 of Education Act, by the Board, by a university, or by Wie 

 such recognised body. It again may be expected that 

 parents will gradually waken up to the meaning of the 

 teacher's register and the value of inspection, and that 

 those schools will flourish best which can show that they 

 too appreciate the advantages of each. 



I have to crave pardon for having failed to give an 

 Address which is in any way sensational. I have thought 

 it better to review what has been done in the past within 

 mv own knowledge, and with this in my mind I .cannot 



