84 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE PROBLEM OF THE AVERAGE 

 BOY. 



How TO Teach Him Science. 



The average boy, in spite of his 1 eing trained by 

 the million in schools, elementary and secondary, still 

 remains an unexplored continent of mind, with whole 

 Niagaras of energy running too largely to waste. In 

 Science Progress for April, Mr. Archer V'assall, science 

 master of Harrow School, points out the source of our 

 general ignorance of the average boy, and of our 

 inability to bring out the best in him ; and suggests a 

 method by which science and the average boy may be 

 brought into mutually helpful relations. He says : — 



.■Ml ihroiitjli tlieir school career the majority of boys are 

 taught with reference to an ideal far beyond their capacity and 

 methods suitable to this ideal are in vogue. The ideal, of 

 course, is the production of such erudite classical stylists or 

 embryo pure mathematicians as may win scholarships at the 

 Universities. 



The result is that work for the average boy, instead of 

 depending on his reasoning power and stimulating his mental 

 self-reliance, is reduced to mere memorising. Consequently 

 there is a loss of plasticity and a lack of resourcefulness which 

 are highly detrimental to him in earning his own living. 



But pLislicity, resourcefulness, and self-reliance are e.\actly 

 the necessary attributes. Hence it beconies more and moie 

 important that science masters by their methods should seek to 

 strengthen and not thwart these characteristics as far as possible. 

 Especially since it is obvious that for the successful develop- 

 ment of the resouices of the Empire these boys need, as far as 

 we can give it to them, a knowledge of the phenomena of their 

 xnvironment and the laws controlling tUem. 



Mr. Vassal! thinks that ideally it would probably be 

 best for all boys of suitable capacity to pursue the 

 subject of science, and possibly engineering ; but at 

 present most of the boys under consideration are not 

 able to avail themselves even of the s) stematic science 

 which does e.xist at public schools. Hence the 

 importance of organising the divisions in which they 

 get their one opportunity of a little science, so as to 

 do them the ir.aximum of good and the minimum of 

 harm. 



.\ SCHEME OUTLINED. 



Mr. Vassall briefly outlines a scheme which, under 

 the existing conditions, gives the most satisfactory 

 results in stimulating interest, and gi\'ing a certain 

 conception of scientific method :— 



Experimental work bearing on whatever problem may be 

 under investigation is done throughout by the boy himself, and 

 this is accompanied by occasional demonstration, information 

 giving, summarising, and heuristic lectureltes. The practical 

 work is taken in small divisions which make a form of heuristic 

 seminar possible. The boys begin with simple Natural History 

 and the work' of great biologists such as Darwin, Pasteur, 

 Lister. U'he matter is not taken as a "subject," but simple 

 chemical and physical phenomena necessary to the issue are 

 considered ; thus the presence of an atmosphere, the nature of 

 oxidation, respiration and combustion are investigated experi- 

 mentally as they occur. It is neither chemistry nor physics nor 

 biology, but all these "subjects" are drawn upon as necessary. 

 The boys use simple microscopes as well as barometer tubes, 

 air pumps and test-tubes in the same course ; they are growing 

 moulds or infusions of B. subtilis one week and investigating 

 the properties of oxygen the week after. The net result is sou>e 



knowledge of a variety of subjects ranging from malaria and 

 phagocytosis to vaccination and sterilisation, of a certain 

 amount of hygiene, and of some simple chemical and physical 

 ideas. 



The next course is rather more definitely chemical in its 

 nature. Primarily it is based on the complete chemical 

 investigation of some common substance, e.g., chalk, a candle, 

 etc., by the boys themselves. The method is to proceed from 

 the known to the unknow n, and it is during this course that a 

 scientific attitude is tnore definitely fostered. 



Real experiments in connection with such daily life expe- 

 riences as breathing, burning and decay, soils, disease, etc., 

 can be as truly educational as crystallisation and fractional 

 distillation. 



The boys then pass on to more definitely physical work, t'.^-. , 

 the electric installation of a house, using not toys but real 

 commercial instruments — ammeters, voltmeters, motors, 

 dynamos. 



In I20 hours a boy can get a good deal more scientilic 

 information and rather more scientific training than is possible 

 in the like time for his examination-ridden brother of similar 

 capacity. \ boy so trained will probably be ploughed in most 

 conventional science examinations for boys of his age. But the 

 writer firmly believes that he would keep his mental plasticity 

 and his interest in scientific subjects and respond to his environ- 

 ment more intelligently than do many .iverage boys diflerently 

 trained. 



DICKENS' MANCHESTER 

 ORIGINALS. 



Mr. John Mortimer contributes to the Manchester 

 Quarterly an interesting study on Dickens and Man- 

 chester. From reminiscences of his boyhood in a Dis- 

 senting chapel at Gresham Road, the writer recalls 

 hearing from the choir in the singing pew the voices of 

 Fanny Burnett, the eldest sister of Charles Dickens, 

 and her husband, Henry Burnett : — ' 



It was at the Academy of Music that she met with Henry 

 Burnett, and P.astor Gril^n tells how, after their marriage, 

 when they had come to Manchester as teachers of music, 

 they found their way, by accident as it was, to his chapel, 

 and how they had become very deeply interested in it, and 

 with what an amount of^ spiritual fervour they entered into its 

 religious life. Very saint-like, indeed, does Fanny appear to 

 have been, as she is revealed to us, in his own delicately- 

 appreciative way, by the worthy pastor, to whom she became 

 deeply attachet' as her spiritual guide. 



Husband and wife offered their services to the con- 

 gregation without reward, and these being accepted 

 they selected some six or eight persons with capable 

 voices to join them. Dickens was on good terms with 

 his brolher-in-law, and is said to have introduced some 

 features of him in creating Nicholas Nickleby. 



THE 0RIG1.N'.\L OF PAUL DOJIBEY. 



When Fanny Burnett died she left behind her luo 

 sons, one a little deformed boy who is said to have 

 been born in Upper Brook Street, and who did fiot 

 long survive her. Of him Pastor Griffin says, " The 

 little deformed child, Harry, was a singular child — 

 meditative and quaint in a remarkable degree. He 

 was the original, as .Mr. Dickens told his sister, of little 

 Paul Dombey. Harry had been taken to Brighton, as 

 little Paul is represented to have been." 



