434 REPORT — 1901. 



the sweeping and far-reaching reforms in the Irish system of National 

 Education are mainly due. It is impossible to overestimate the debt the 

 country owes them. 



Your Committee have not felt called upon to express an opinion on 

 the important questions involved in the decision of the Court of King's 

 Bench in the case of Rex v. Cockerton ; but, whatever may be the tinal 

 outcome of the present controversy, they trust that the interests of 

 Science Teaching will not suffer, whatever the authority be to which it 

 may be entrusted. 



APPENDIX. 



Irish National Schools. 



' Object Lessons and Ele'mentary Science. 



' The Programme provides for alternative courses in Object Lessons and 

 Elementary Science ; but in most of the rural National Schools it would 

 be desirable that the courses embracing the principles underlying Agri- 

 culture and Horticulture should be adopted. In this connection the 

 Commissioners desire to direct the attention of Managers and Teachers to 

 the French Scheme for teaching Agi'iculture, of which a translation is pub- 

 lished in the Appendix to the Report of the Commission on Manual and 

 Practical Instruction. At the same time the Commissioners leave 

 Managers and Teachers free to select, with the concurrence of the Inspec- 

 tor, any of the courses that may seem most suited to the special circum- 

 stances of the schools. Managers may also submit for the approval of 

 the Commissioners other courses than those provided, if they consider 

 none of the Programme courses suitable. 



' As regai'ds Course I. of Elementary Experimental Science, it is 

 intended that, as far as possible, all experiments should be performed by 

 some, at any rate, of the scholars. The teaching should be directed, in 

 the first place, to produce accurate habits of experiment, observation, and 

 thought. The experiment should be undertaken with the object of 

 solving a definite problem, and the explanation or discussion of results 

 should not take place until the experiment has been repeated by indi- 

 vidual members of the class a number of times. An accurate Balance is 

 essential to such a course, and it should not be attempted without such 

 n.n instrument. The greatest possible importance should be attached to 

 the composition and style of the accounts of the experiment : these notes 

 should represent the scholar's own version of the experiment. The 

 primary purpose of such a course is to produce accurate habits of thought 

 and work, and the mere giving of information should be subordinate to 

 this purpose. 



' In giving instruction in Object Lessons teachers should make a dis- 

 tinction between observation of the Object itself and giving information 

 about the Object. The pupils in the first instance should be asked closely 

 to oberve the Object, and to describe everything they can see or discover 

 about it, before the teacher gives any instruction on the Object. In 

 connection with Object Lessons and Elementary Science Lessons, as in con- 

 nection with Manual and Practical Instruction, the Heuristic method 

 .should be continuously employed. The pupils should cultivate the habit 

 of obtaining knowledge directly and at first hand, finding out for them- 



