ON THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 281 



rmising boys shonld receive some elementary manual instruction before 

 "the close of their school career. 



' That your memorialists have established a technical class for boys 

 who have passed through a course of lessons under the Board's science 

 demonstrator, and are thus specially prepared for this kind of instruction. 

 ' That the department has informed the Board the code does not 

 recognise such experimental instruction in -workshops, and that the two 

 hours per week devoted to such instruction cannot be reckoned as an 

 attendance for the purpose of Article 12. 



' That twenty boys attending the People's College Higher Grade 

 Board School have been under instruction one half-day per week since 

 October last at the Nottingham University College Technical Workshops, 

 and that the experimental scheme of the Board has worked satisfactorily. 

 ' That, in the opinion of the Board, the scheme might usefully be 

 extended to the ordinary Board schools, which are also visited by the 

 Board's science demonstrator. In answer to recent inquiries, ninety-six 

 boys are reported as willing to pay a quarterly fee of 2s. 6d. for instruc- 

 tion at the technical workshops dui-ing one half-day per week, whilst 

 sixty-six boys are desirous of attending but are unable to pay the fee. 



' That, inasmuch as technical education, including the use of wood and 

 iron tools, is of as much importance to senior boys as needlewook and 

 practical cookery are to girls, your memorialists respectfully urge the 

 department to sanction elementary technical instruction as part of the 

 recognised school course, and to allow payments for boys thus taught, 

 either by inclusion of the subject as another specific — Schedule IV. and 

 Article 109 (g) — or by making a grant similar to that now given for 

 instruction in cookery — Article 109 (h). 



' Tour memorialists would beg your careful consideration of the con- 

 firmatory evidence of the recent Royal Commissioners on Technical 

 Education, who state in their second report (vol. i.) that they are 

 satisfied that such manual work " is very beneficial as a part of the pre- 

 liminary education of boys in this country who are to be subsequently 

 engaged in industrial pursuits" (p. 524). "Your commissioners see no 

 reason why, since grants are made on needleA\-ork in girls' schools, they 

 should not be made on manual work in boys' schools " (p. 524), and recom- 

 mend " that proficiency in the use of tools for working in wood and iron 

 be paid for as a specific subject " (p. 537).' 



This memorial has been supported by the School Boards for London, 

 Birmingham, Gateshead, Huddersfield, Bristol, Swansea, Salford, Derby, 

 Norwich, and Ipswich. 



The same difficulty has been met with by the London Board in 

 regard- to its experiment in the use of tools, referred to in our last report, 

 though it appears to have given much satisfaction to the boys, their 

 parents, and the Board : it formed the subject of a question by Sir 

 Bemhard Samuelson in the House of Commons, and he has stated his 

 intention of bringing the matter forward again in some more definite 

 form. 



The earlier age at which children pass their standards in elementary 

 subjects is bringing to the front the question of those who, having passed 

 Standard VII., are willing to remain at school and take up higher 

 subjects. Under present arrangements no grant can be earned from the 

 Education Department for such children, and, although larger grants can 

 be earned from the Science and Art Department, it is a matter of doubt 



