546 



NA TURE 



[August i r, 1904 



Tor anv and every kind of school is, in fact, the most 

 difficult and far-reaching- of all the tasks which fall 

 to the lot of educational administrators. A second 

 publication of the Board of Education ' published last 

 month assumes in consequence especial importance, 

 and will be consulted throughout the country with the 

 greatest interest. It is true its instructions and rules 

 apply at present only to the preparation for their career 

 received by teachers destined to rule in elementary 

 schools, but it is useful as indicating the subjects which 

 in the opinion of the Board of Education should 

 engage the attention of the prospective teacher. More- 

 over, the general principles which apply to the train- 

 ing of teachers for elementary schools are in a large 

 measure applicable to the professional training of their 

 secondary school colleagues. The new regulations 

 for the training of teachers may surelv then be taken 

 as indicating what, in the opinion of the Board of 

 Education, should be regarded as of vital importance 

 in any scheme for the professional preparation of 

 ■every grade of teacher. 



It is consequently satisfactory to find that the place 

 ■of greatest prominence in the group of studies which 

 is to engage the attention of the budding schoolmaster 

 is given to a training in scientific method. To quote 

 the regulations : — 



" Much of the instruction which is given in all subjects 

 must necessarily be founded upon the statements and the 

 experience of other persons ; but every education which de- 

 serves to be called complete must include some training 

 of the student in those systematic methods of enquiry which 

 are necessary for any assured advance in knowledge, and 

 which are the most truly educative of all mental processes. 



If this scientific spirit is to find its right e.xpression 

 in the teaching given in elementary schools it must be 

 made to imbue the whole study of the intending teacher 

 during his course in the Training College. It must not 

 be confined to any one branch of the curriculum. It is true 

 that, partly as the result of tradition and partly from other 

 reasons, the term ' scientific method ' has come to be 

 associated more particularly with the study of natural 

 phenomena. But as a matter of fact, scientific method is 

 of equal importance, and is indeed of ancient application, 

 in the field of history, literature, language and philosophy ; 

 and wherever knowledge of these has made advance, it may 

 be discerned that the essential processes of scientific enquiry 

 have been employed." 



The specific references to the kind of instruction in 

 science which the Board intends to encourage are 

 deserving of even higher commendation, and if these 

 wishes are carried into effect in the colleges in the 

 case of each and every student in training, it will not 

 be manv years before a distinct improvement will be 

 noticed in the teaching given in elementary schools. 

 To refer to the regulations again : — 



But in addition to all this, and particularly in view of 

 the courses which have for many years existed in most 

 of the Training Colleges, a certain special regard must be 

 -given to this aspect of instruction and training, in the case 

 of the Natural Science portions of the curriculum. It is 

 in this branch of study that the student can in some ways 

 learn most effectively to depend in some measure upon his 

 own powers, and discover that he need not take everything 

 unverified and on trust upon the statement of text books 

 or lecturers. For by wisely planned and supervised labor- 

 atory work the student may be brought into immediate 

 touch with the facts of nature, and learn to find some things 

 out for himself, and to form conclusions upon the results 

 of his own observations. For these reasons the student's 

 work in science should be so arranged that his experiments 

 in the laboratory will precede and lead up to such general- 

 isations in the formal lectures as can safely be established 

 upon what the student has himself observed." 



1 " Regulations for the Training of Teachers and for the Examination of 

 Students in Training Colleges.'' [Gd.»i34.] Price 40'. 



It seems to us that the Board of Education has shown 

 a generous appreciation of the value of scientific studies 

 both in the professional training of teachers and in 

 the work of the secondary school. We are promised 

 e.xactly that for which men of science have frequently 

 and consistently pleaded in these columns. It only 

 remains novi' to look for the loyal cooperation of school 

 governors and headmasters, and the reproach as to 

 the absurdly bookish nature of English education will 

 soon become merely a matter of history. We 

 earnestly hope that the inspectors and other interpreters 

 of the regulations will be inspired by the same spirit 

 which prompted the framer of most of the sections of 

 the prefatory memoranda to these official publications. 



NO. 18 I 5, VOL. 70] 



VHYSICM. DETERIORATION.' 

 "PLEVEN months ago the large percentage of re- 

 ■'--' jections for physical causes of recruits for the 

 Army led to the appointment of this committee. The 

 members were the clerk of the council, the inspector 

 of physical training, and the principal assistant 

 secretary to the Board of Education, inspectors of re- 

 formatory and industrial schools and of marine 

 recruiting, the assistant secretary of the Scotch 

 Education Department, a representative of the General 

 Registry Office, and a secretary. 



The committee was directed " (i) to determine, 

 with the aid of such counsel as the medical profession 

 are able to give, the steps that should be taken to 

 furnish the Government and the nation at large with 

 periodical data for an accurate comparative estimate 

 of the health and physique of the people ; (2) to indicate 

 generally the causes of such physical deterioration as 

 does e.xist in certain classes ; and (3) to point out the 

 means by which it can be most effectually diminished." 



This committee, composed of inembers of high 

 critical faculty, has been able to focus much of the 

 knowledge of sanitary and .social science of the past 

 generation as presented to them by wisely selected 

 witnesses, and has evidently produced an epoch-making 

 report. 



A few items from this panorama of lives of women 

 and children of the poorest classes may be quoted as 

 samples of the thoroughness of this report. 



While bad physique practically centres round feed- 

 ing, great care has been exercised in proposing the 

 remedies for underfed children at school, and the report 

 states : — " Education is a great social need which 

 individual citizens are, as a rule, not able to provide 

 for their children on a sufficient scale, but food like 

 clothing and lodging is a personal necessity, which in 

 a well ordered society it is not inherently impossible 

 for parents to provide, and the effort to supplement 

 their deficiencies and to correct the effects of their 

 neglect should aim in the first instance at the restor- 

 ation of self-respect and enforcement of parental 

 duty." 



In the course of a full memorandum by the principal 

 lady inspector of factories referring to employment 

 of mothers in factories and workshops, we read : — 

 " It is impossible, however, not to be impressed by 

 the universal preference amongst the women for 

 factory over domestic life. I was continually being 

 told how greatly they preferred their work in the 

 factory to the minding of children, and how depressed 

 and out of health they became if they were obliged 

 to remain at home. Surprising as this appears at first, 

 it becomes less .so on consideration. At thirteen years 

 of age the majority of these women would have begun 

 to work in a factory, to handle their own earnings, 



1 Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deteriorattoa. 

 (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1904.) Price u. 2d, 



