TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 627. 
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. 
The following Report and Papers were read :— 
1, Report of the Committee cn the workings of proposed revised New Code 
affecting the teaching of Science in Hlementary Schools.—See Reports, p: 309: 
2. A System of Science Demonstration in Elementary Schools. 
By W. Lant Carpenter, B.A., B.Sc. 
The subject of this paper is some of the results which have been obtained during 
the last few years by the system of science demonstrations first conceived and 
elaborated by the Liverpool School Board, with the advice of Colonel Donelly, R.E., 
Professor Huxley, and others; but worked out in greater detail, and possibly in 
some respects more successfully, in Birmingham. The success in both places, how- 
ever, has been so great, and the commendations of the system by eminent men who 
have been made aware of it, have been so strong, as to lead to the belief that, were 
it more widely known, it would be more generally adopted. 
The subjects of instruction at present are:—for boys, elementary physics; for 
girls, domestic economy, including elementary physics, chemistry, and physiology. 
No child is admitted to the classes who has not passed Standard IV., but in the 
Birmingham Schools, a well-arranged system of object lessons prepares the minds 
of the younger children for the higher system. The essence of that system consists: 
(1) in the entire abandonment of text-books of any kind, the teaching being entirely 
oral. (2) The employment of a specially-appointed expert, as a demonstrator, 
(with assistants where necessary), who goes round from school to school with 
apparatus, &c., repeating the same lesson in each till all have been visited. (8) The 
encouragement of the children to take part in the demonstrations themselves, and 
to write out notes of the lessons, which are revised by the demonstrator. (4) The 
establishment of a central laboratory, for practical work by advanced scholars, &e. 
As to results, the most important probably is the general quickening of the 
intellectual life of the school. In Liverpool, in the three years prior to the’ intro- 
duction of the system, the percentage of passes in ‘the three k's’ averaged 74-4, 
while in the five years succeeding its introduction, it averaged 87-8, or an increase 
actually of 13}, and proportionately of 18 per cent. Another advantage is, the 
attraction of the attention of teachers to science properly taught as a means of 
education, and to this may be added the discovery of lads of exceptional scientific 
ability, and the aid thus afforded them. The actual value of the information oiven 
and of the diffusion of a taste. for science, are too obvious to need more than a 
mere mention. 
3. On the Education of Artisans... By G. B. Barron, M.D. 
The social economies of every country depend upon and are influenced by the 
kind of training of the people. The character of every community is stamped with the 
impress of its national education. All methods of education should aim to give 
moral tone to the young to fit them for the battle of life. No education is effective 
without the aid of religion. The vast majority of the young do not obtain that in 
their homes. The present standard of elementary teaching is too high. Education 
_tnust not stop with the three R’s, but must be pushed on by State aid to practical 
and manual instruction in workshops’ provided to teach technology in order to 
bring up our artisans to a level with those of other countries in the art of 
producing decorative fabrics. 
' Art classes wherever established are doing a great work in bringing the poorer 
Printed in extenso in the Southport Visiter in the general daily report of the 
British Association meeting. 
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