62 4 



NA TURE 



{Oct. 23, 1884 



I. As regards "plant," it involves (1) the building of a 

 laboratory in some central position ; (2) the purchase of a stock 

 of apparatus ; (3) the provision of a small hand-cart by which 

 boxes containing apparatus can be readily carried from school to 

 school. 



II. A special science demonstrator is appointed, with such 

 assistants as the number of schools to be dealt with may require. 



III. The duties of the science demonstrator are (1) to prepare 

 a scheme of lessons and arrange the experiments for their illus- 

 tration : in Birmingham, in the boys' departments, mechanics 

 is taken as a "specific subject," and in some schools ma<metism 

 and electricity are added ; in the girls' departments, domestic 

 economy is taken, and animal physiology is in some cases 

 added ; (2) to visit the schools in succession, and give at each 

 school a le-son profusely illustrated by experiments, the re- 

 quisite apparatus being brought by the hand-cart from the 

 central laboratory. 



IV. The regular staff of the school assists the demonstrator, 

 and is assisted by him in the following ways :— 



(1) A teacher on the staff of the school is present at every 

 demonstration, and is thus prepared to enforce and continue its 

 lessons in the intervals elapsing between the demonstrator's 

 visits. 



(2) The scholars have opportunity given them during school 

 hours to write answers to questions set by the demonstrator, who 

 eximines their papers. 



In Birmingham a "demonstration" is given in each depart- 

 ment once a fortnight. It would be, however, a great improve- 

 ment if the demonstrator or one of his staff could visit each 

 school once during every week. The science staff consists of a 

 chief demonstrator (Mr. W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S., whose 

 services deserve the warmest acknowledgment), three assistant 

 demonstrators, who assist in giving lessons at the schools, and a 

 junior laboratory assistant. I'm., youths are employed to work 

 the hand-cart. The whole amount of salary paid to this staff 

 amounts to 750'. per annum. 



Scientific instruction is given by this method in thirty boys' 

 schools and thirty girls' schools, containing about 32,000 

 scholars, the numbers in the classes and the specific subject-, 

 taken being : — 



Mechanics 24O0 Boys 



Magnetism and Electricity 300 



Domestic Economy 1800 Girls 



Animal Physiology I00 



Objections may possibly be taken to this system in the follow- 

 ing directions : — 



I. Its cost. — It being granted, however, that thorough and 

 systematic scientific instruction ought to be introduced into 

 elementary schools, the peripatetic method is the very cheapest 

 that can be devised. One set of apparatus serves for many 

 schools, and one laboratory suffices for the preparation of the 

 experiments. The services of the staff are utilised to the 

 utmost ; and the amount of salary to be charged against each 

 school is trifling. Supposing twenty schools in a town or 

 neighbouring villages to be grouped together, the system might 

 be worked at a very slight expense to each. The investment of 

 capital required would be less than 1000/., viz. :— 



Building of Central Laboratory ' ^700 



Apparatus \" ™ 



The annual working expenses would be — 



Salaries of science demonstrator and assistant ... 

 Waste of chemicals, renewal of apparatus, &c. ... 

 Expense of moving apparatus from laboratory to 

 school 



/iooo 



;£4°° 



5o 



^5°o 

 Ample provision could be made at this cost for twenty schools 

 each having accommodation for 300 or 400 children, i.e. each of 

 the associated schools could obtain, for about 25/. a year 

 thoroughly good experimental instruction for all scholars who 

 have passed the fourth standard. 



II. It may be asked whether, in the short time that can be 

 allowed for any specific subject, it is possible to obtain results 

 oi sufficient educational worth to justify the expenditure of 

 labour, thought, and money I am advocating. As a reply to 

 ' The Birmingham laboratory cost (with fittings) 1450/., but it has a lec- 

 ture-room and private room for demonstrator attached. 



this objection, lean point without fear to the results actually 

 attained in Birmingham ; an hour to an hour and a half a week 

 being all the time which has been spared for science, including 

 the fortnightly demonstration, the recapitulation, and prepara- 

 tion of exercises. The teaching being experimental, an impres- 

 is made upon the minds of the scholars which can neither be 

 equalled or measured by the effects of ordinary class teaching 

 lecturing, or book work. The scholars are induced to think 

 and read, and prepare models of machines and drawings out of 

 school hours ; and during school hours they are found to apply 

 themselves with a will to their scientific exercises. Prof Poynt- 

 mg (of Mason College) has examined a large number of boys 

 competing for a scholarship, and reported to the Board that 



the boys showed that they had seen and understood the ex- 

 periments which they described, that they had been taught to 

 reason for themselves upon them, and that they were not merely 

 using forms of words which they had learned without attaching 

 physical ideas to them." Specimens of the models made by the 

 children, their drawings, ai d examination papers, have been 

 exhibited at the International Health Exhibition, of which the 

 subjoined account is given in the School Board Chronicle (August 

 9, 18S4) :— " 'Ihe cabinet of machines and models and copies of 

 the science apparatus used by the demonstrators in their experi- 

 ments is well worthy of a visit. It shows the extent and nature 

 of the interest which the children take in this practical form of 

 education. Most of the models have been made by the children 

 at their homes, and often with very inferior tools. One lad has 

 a copy of the Chinese windlass, another makes a little pile 

 engine, and a third illustrates the inclined plane, a fourth the 

 mariner's compass, and so on through a great variety of objects, 

 until a very tolerable little collection of rough but serviceable 

 apparatus has been brought. In cases extending the length 

 of one of the walls of the room is a collection of specimen 

 papers and drawings, prepared at the demonstrator's fortnightly 

 examination of the results of his preceding lesson, and no 

 further justification of the system than these papers can be 

 needed. 



In comparing these models and papers with others, it must be 

 remembered that the Birmingham work was not done in any 

 " higher-grade " institutions, with high fees and picked scholars, 

 hut indicates the kind of scientific training that may be "wen 

 by the help of the peripatetic method in any public elementary 

 school. ' 



III. Great anxiety is felt by many lest the introduction of 

 science into elementary schools should result in mere " cram " • 

 and a number of hard technical words be repeated by rote to be' 

 forgotten as soon as school is left. It is not unusual to hear a 

 laugh raised by the quotation of some technical word from an 

 examination paper, as though its use reduced the system to an 

 absurdity. Scientific facts are, however, most clearly expressed 

 m scientific language. Even young scholars gain by knowing 

 the right words by which physical facts and laws are described ; 

 and their intellects are bemtiddled by vague expressions. The 

 employment of scientific words is no proof of "cram." I admit, 

 as a matter of course, that the attempt to teach science without 

 demonstrating experimentally every fact and law, must result in 

 cramming of the worst description ; but experimental teaching 

 gives the death-How to cram. 



IV. Will not, however, it is sometimes asked, the introduc- 

 tion of this system of scientific teaching interfere with the pro- 

 gress of the children in writing, reading, and arithmetic ? Will 

 not the elements of ordinary education be neglected because of 

 the attention demanded for such scientific subjects as mechanics, 

 magnetism, and electricity ? On the contrary, it is found as a 

 matter of fact, that the intellectual life of the school is quickened 

 in every direction by the study of science. The scholars find 

 that the "three R's " are not dull, dry, and abstract pursuits, 

 but keys to a world of new marvels and interests. The schools 

 under the Birmingham Board in which there is the keenest 

 interest in science are certain to prove the schools in which the 

 ordinary work is best done. Since 1S80, when the science de- 

 monstrator was first appointed, the percentage of passes in the 

 "three R's" has steadily increased, as well as the number of 

 passes in specific subjects. 



Year Number of passes in Percent 



specific subjects 



1S80 Sal . 



I88l 1724 ... 



iSS: 



3114 



New Code with i 



nents/3 1 5° 



_ = 2 of passes 

 "three R's" 



847 



8S- 4 

 92 6 



higher requiremc 



