720 REPORT — 1902. 



college and wishes to learn the scientific principles underlying a trade or profession, 

 how ought we to teach him ? Here is the reasonable general principle which 

 Professors Ayrton and Armstrong and I have acted upon, and which has so far led 

 us to much success. Whether he comes from a bad or a good school, whether he 

 is an old or young boy or man, approach his intelligence through the knowledge 

 and experience he already possesses. This principle involves that we shall compel 

 the teacher to take the pupil's point of view ' rather than the pupil the teacher's ; 

 give the student a choice of many directions in which he may study ; let lectures 

 be rather to instruct the student how to teach himself than to teach him ; show 

 the student how to learn through experiment, and how to use books, and, except 

 for suo-gestion and help when asked for, leave him greatly to himself. If a 

 teacher understands the principle he will have no difficulty in carrying it out with 

 any class of students. I myself prefer to have students of very ditlerent qualifica- 

 tions and experience in one class because of the education that each gives to the 

 others. Usually, however, except in evening classes, one has a set of boys coming 

 from much the same kind of school, and, although perhaps differing considerably 

 as to the places they might take in an ordinary examination, really all of much 

 the same average intelligence. Perhaps I had better describe how the principle is 

 carried out in one case — the sons of well-to-do parents such as now leave English 

 schools at about fifteen years of age. 



It was for such boys that the courses of instruction at the Finsbury Technical 

 College (the City and Guilds of London Institute) were arranged twenty-two 

 years ago. It was attempted to supply that kind of training which ought already 

 to have been given at school, together with so much technical training as might 

 enable a boy at the end of a two years' course to enter any kind of factory where 

 applied scieuce was important, with an observing eye, an understanding brain, and 

 a fairlv skilful hand. The system, in so far as it applies to various kinds of 

 mechanical engineering, will be found described in one of a small collection of 

 essays called ' England's Neglect of Science,' pp. 57-67.^ I am sure that any 

 engineer who reads that description will feel satisfied that it was the very best 

 course imaginable for the average boy of the present time. A boy was taught how 

 he must teach himself after he entered works. If after two or three years in the 

 works he cared to go for a year or so to one of the greater colleges, or did not 

 80 care, it was assumed that he had had such a training as would enable him to 

 choose the course which was really the best for him. 



Old Finsbury students are to be found everywhere in important posts. The 

 experiment has proved so successful that every London Polytechnic, every Muni- 

 cipal Technical School in the country, has adopted the system, and in the present 

 state of our schools I feel sure that all important colleges ought to adopt the 

 Finsbury system. It hardly seems appropriate to apply the word ' system ' to what 

 was so plastic and uncrystallised and had nothing to do with any kind of ritual. 



' Usually it is assumed that there is only one line of study. In mathematics it is 

 assumed that a boy has the knowledge and power and past experience and leisure of 

 an Alexandrian philosopher. In mechanics v^e assume the boy to be fond of abstract 

 reasoning, that he is a good geometrician who can do the most complex things in 

 geometrical conies, but cannot possibly take in the simplest idea of the calculus. 



'■^ The ideas in this Address have been put forward many times by Professor 

 Ayrton and myself. See the following, among other publications : — Etiglcini's 

 Neglect of Science (Fisher Unwin) ; Practical 3Iechanics, 1881 (Cassell) ; Applied 

 MecJianics, 1897 (Cassell) ; The Steam Engine, ^'c, 1898 (Macmillan) ; The Calculus 

 for Engineers, 1897 (Arnold); Recent Syllabuses and Examination Papers of the 

 Science and Art Department in Subjects I., VII., Yp, and XXII. ; Summary of 

 Lectures on Practical Mathematics (Board of Education) ; The Work of the City 

 and Guilds Central Technical CoUege (^Journal of the Society of Arts, July 9, 1897) ; 

 Inaugural Lecture at Finsbury, 1879 ; Address at the Coventry Technical Institute, 

 February 1898 ; ' Education of an Electrical Engineer ' (Journal of the Society of 

 Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians, September 1882) ; Presidential Address, 

 Institution of' Electrical Engineers, January 1 8 92 ; ' The Best Education for an 

 Engineer {Nature), October 12, 1899; Address at a Drawing-room Meeting, March 

 1837. 



