ON TEACHING CHEMISTRY. 257 



in Standard V. for one year, he is usually ready for the elementary stage 

 South Kensington examination, but is not admissible for another year. 

 (If the 'Class' subject 'elementary science' were taken in Standards 

 T. to IV., as is so desirable, this difficulty would be further increased.) 



Most boys on reaching Standard VI. leave school, so that they do not 

 take the South Kensington examinations, which is the only way for the 

 Bchool to earn the substantial grants which make science teaching * pay.' 



In consequence of these difficulties surrounding the teaching of chem- 

 istry as a ' speci6c ' subject under the Whitehall Department, the 

 greater part of the chemical teaching in elementary schools is forced 

 under the South Kensington Science and Art Department, and school 

 boards are being led to establish higher-grade schools, confined to boys 

 who have passed the Sixth Standard and are able to prepare for the South 

 Kensington examinations. They include those boys whose parents are 

 of sufficiently good means to keep them at school after the age of 

 fourteen. Such schools are regarded by many as going beyond the 

 elementary education contemplated in the Education Act of 1870. 



Conclusions. — Reviewing the foregoing statements, which I have en- 

 deavoured to keep free from merely personal opinions, I am led to the 

 following conclusions : — 



(1) That the teaching of chemistry in public elementary schools is 

 fer from satisfactory in its organisation. 



(2) That the teaching of chemistry in public elementary schools from 

 its earliest stages in the infant schools to its latest stages in higher-grade 

 schools should be under the control of one Educational Department only. 



(3) That if, as is admitted, the teaching of chemistry, if adopted at all, 

 should be used as a part of general mental discipline, its organisation and 

 control should not be separated from that of other branches of elementary 

 education, that is to say, it should be conducted under the Whitehall 

 Education Department. 



(4) That the present inspectorate is ill-adapted for the supervision 

 and control of chemical teaching, and that special or additional inspectors, 

 suitably qualified, should be appointed. 



(5) That the Code regulations should be so amended as to give 

 * elementary science ' more chance of being adopted as a ' class or op- 

 tional ' subject — e.g., by incorporating geography and elementary science 

 as one subject. 



(6) That the minimum qualifications for science teachers are too low, 

 for, though it is possible for such teachers to inculcate facts, a high 

 standard of scientific knowledge is absolutely necessary for the proper 

 ' educative ' teaching of the most elementary chemistry. 



(7) That the peripatetic system is at present the only practicable way 

 of obtaining sufficiently good chemical teaching. 



(8) That the science teaching in the Universities and University col- 

 leges should be made available for the training of teachers of chemistry 

 in public elementary schools. 



(9) That, as a rule, chemistry is presented to children in elementary 

 schools in precisely the same way as to undergraduates in the Universities, 

 and that this is the chief cause of unsatisfactory results. 



(10) That the routine schematic teaching of qualitative analysis which 

 constitutes usually the 'practical chemistry' of schools, though pleasing 

 and interesting to the pupils, is most unsatisfactory and imeducative. 



1889. 8 



