April 23, 1885] 



NA TURE 



579 



see the points of difference and the correspondents who 

 differ. 



The replies seem to show : — 



(1) A widely-spreading preference for science over 

 literature or classics, — (a) as training of the mind; inducing 

 habits of observation such as no study of grammar does, 

 and consequently a great increase in what is called 

 common sense, which close attentiveness soon spreads to 

 other studies also, giving each observer who has caught 

 the spirit of inquiry and learnt how to observe, compare, 

 and draw conclusions himself, confidence in his own 

 observations, instead of depending upon the authority of 

 some book. It is well described from the master's point 

 of view : — 



" The advantages of the study have been : (1) Wonder- 

 ful quickening of the intellect, lively interest in the school ; 

 (2) subsequent growth into the scientific and scholarly 

 spirit, developing a wonderful ingenuity in mechanical 

 contrivances and the manipulation of tools ; (3) doubling 

 (in some instances quintupling) the number of boys who 

 take the high school course, and giving many a strong 

 bent to industrial pursuits in their better-skilled depart- 

 ments. It has secured students of broader power of 

 thought and generalisation. It has cultivated the senses 

 so that pupils were not 'nature-blind.' It has trained to 

 the habit of nice adjustment of probabilities, which has 

 reacted with marked power in giving a critical acumen in 

 classical research "(p. 16). 



Since, therefore, it is our middle and higher classes 

 who have to look to their brains for their success in life 

 it is they specially who want this training in scientific 

 method which will " teach them how to learn, not what to 

 know.'' 



(i) As valuable information — valuable first from a 

 m point of view : — 



'• When one reflects how few persons there are who 

 know the composition of a drop of water or a grain of 

 sand in comparison with those who are familiar with a 

 Latin verb or a Greek preposition, and how much each 

 of these separate classes of educated people is accom- 

 plishing, it seems plain to me that instruction in physics 

 is of the utmost importance to our people ; for, beyond 

 all doubt, scientific men have done, are doing, and will do 

 more for the advancement and well-being of our country 

 than any other class of her citizens " (p. 50,1. 



And from this same point of view any scientific informa- 

 tion is valuable to children who leave the elementary 

 schools early in life, though it is generally urged that 

 stuffing them with incoherent facts is a most useless 

 education, and that what information is given must, 

 therefore, form part of a scheme for teaching them ob- 

 servation. The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science protests aga nst any way of giving them 

 information ; they must get it. 



Such information, how'ever, is also rising in value as 

 an accomplishment, and the lack of it will soon be looked 

 upon as an ignorance of classics was a generation ago. 

 It will be felt that : ' no knowledge of language can atone 

 for an ignorance of nature;' and that a neglected 

 false quantity is a very venial offence compared with 

 wondering why eclipses never take place when the moon 

 is half full. 



2. That in the lowest schools, lessons on the elements 

 of science should be given : examples being taken as 

 much as possible from the most familiar toys and other 

 objects about them. Experiments with such th 

 urged, because they are a fascination to the you: ; 



im committing Latin Grammar to memory. But 

 the desirability of making this instruction the preparation 

 for the higher classes is met by the fact that so few go on to 

 them, and it seems clear that something more exact and 

 systematic should be commenced among those who do go 

 on ; for, unless this is done, although a boy □ 

 acquired some general notions of the terms and subject- 



matter, yet if fundamental points have been neglected in 

 the lower schools, either the college class must be kept 

 back to study these points, or he must build all his 

 advanced work on an uncertain foundation. 



(3) A further divergence is found on the question of 

 experiments. A successful experiment is a great power 

 for good, but it is a gift to be able to make experiments 

 accurately and successfully : and, if the experiment fails, 

 the faith in all teaching connected with it is shaken ; still 

 less can it be made the basis of fresh conclusions. Im- 

 perfect experiments, therefore, are an unmixed mischief, 

 and for elementary classes all should be done by 

 the teacher, who, besides a good general knowledge, 

 should have some manual skill in using or even in 

 making apparatus : " otherwise mistakes in method 

 and fact will be common in his teaching, and his 

 instruction will be a constant appeal to the text-book or 

 other authority, thus losing the very thing that is of 

 peculiar value in the training derived from the study of 

 science." If the higher school students are put to experi- 

 menting when unqualified for it, and with inadequate 

 means, habits of slovenly experimenting and inconsequent 

 induction are formed, or the student is disgusted with the 

 unsatisfactory nature of the whole thing. 



(4) In the upper grades, however, and among specially 

 gifted boys the value of experiments both by teacher and 

 scholar is insisted upon almost as uniformly as it is 

 among those who study the science of teaching and the 

 teaching of science in England. " No support is given 

 to the notion common among men of a literary education 

 that physics can be learned as history is, by reading a 

 book. Experiments are essential to the study, and to 

 profess to teach physics without providing suitable ex- 

 periments in sufficient number to illustrate the subject 

 must be considered as a case of false pretences." 

 Learning science by experiments draws out powers of the 

 mind that school-teaching of every other kind, involving 

 as it does unquestioning submission to authority, com- 

 pletely numbs. The exact observation of facts and, on 

 the one hand, the bringing those into relation which had 

 seemed unconnected, and, on the other hand, the loosen- 

 ing of independent facts that wise saws have placed in 

 close relation ; in a word, discovery, with its necessary 

 companions, self-reliance, independent thought, shrewd- 

 ness of judgment — the very qualities which make a suc- 

 cessful man of the world— are all developed by experi- 

 mental science instead of the too frequent opposite effect 

 which makes anxious business fathers dread too much 

 schooling for the sons who will have to follow them. 



(5) Parallel to (3) and (4) are the conclusions drawn as 

 to making apparatus. Bad apparatus induces imperfect 

 experiment, and, as laboratory work must be serious and 

 yield visible results or it will be despised, the apparatus 

 for the students' use must not be flimsy, or in the nature 

 of a plaything merely. It is therefore penny wise and 

 pound foolish for a teacher to make his own appara- 

 tus. If his time is worth anything his productions 

 will cost more than the more perfect work of an in- 

 strument maker ; and, besides the great chance of im- 

 perfection from the beginning, it will be liable to such 

 faults as warping, and, moreover, not likely to suit the 

 next teacher. On the other hand, such a general rule as 

 this is not intended to tie the hands of gifted teachers 

 who can make everything that comes in their way their 

 slave to answ-er their questions. There is a rapid descent 

 from such to the plodding worker who teaches for daily 

 bread. 



The most difficult question to answer confidently, after 

 taking the opinion of so many doctors, is whether teach- 

 ing of any use to elementary schools can be made without 

 serious disadvantage to form part of a course pursued 

 further by the higher classes. The Circular finds unanimous 

 agreement among the United States teachers that it is 

 most desirable : and, after quoting English opinions that 



