196 SIK WILLIAM KAMSAY 



for the better still persists, but the old regime has left its mark 

 on many of the teachers, and though many of the younger 

 masters and mistresses have been emancipated the process is 

 not yet complete. 



An attempt was made to introduce science teaching into schools 

 by the institution of the Science and Art Department. Teachers 

 who so desired were able to obtain instruction in elementary 

 science physics, chemistry and botany and in the rudiments 

 of art by attendance at courses of instruction for a month or two 

 in the year, their expenses being paid. It was possible for them 

 to earn enhanced grants if they could impart to their pupils the 

 information they had received, so as to enable them to pass 

 certain prescribed examinations. 



This system had something to recommend it, and in some 

 cases, doubtless, good was done. But there is no royal road to 

 learning, and with the best will in the world it is impossible to 

 imbue a heterogeneous assemblage of young men and women in 

 the course of a couple of months with more than a smattering 

 of rudimentary facts. 



It was these facts, or probably in most cases a travesty of them, 

 which were imparted to the pupils by the teachers. Science is 

 essentially experimental ; its dry bones can be buried in books, 

 but when disinterred and swallowed they are poor nourishment. 

 Examination by examiners who have had no part in the instruc- 

 tion of the pupil, tests at the best a retentive memory and the 

 power of assimilating phrases. 



So-called ' practical examinations ' do not help matters. They, 

 too, become systematised and consist only in testing the ability 

 of a pupil to remember some manual actions scarcely associated 

 with definite meaning. The only practical examination possible 

 is the daily examination of the pupil by the teacher, when all 

 signs of intelligence are noted and education becomes a ' drawing- 

 out ' of the child's mind. British elementary education there- 

 fore, for the past half-century and more, has followed wrong lines. 



