ON THE CURRICULA OF SECONDARE SCHOOLS. 



}29 



Table B. — Usual science subjects in schools lohere the leaviitg age is 



eighteen. 



Average Age. 



Subjects 



12 



13 



14 



15 



IG 



Nature-study , 



Elementary Physical | 

 Measurements J 



Elementary Heat 



Mechanics 



Heat and Light 



Electricity 



Elementary Chemistry 



Systematic Chemistry 



Biology . 



Sound 



17 



18 



Subject taught by a few schools 



„ „ „ majority of schools 



„ „ „ nearly all schools 



Nature-study appears in a minority of Group A and a majoiity of 

 Group B, and always prscedes mensuration, kc. Outdoor and observational 

 studies have made progress since the Nature-study Exhibition of 1902. 

 The work is practical and seasonal. In many schools boys so inclined 

 continue in their leisure hours to work in connection with natural history 

 clubs ; otherwise these studies cease somewhat abruptly at a^e thirteen or 

 fourteen, and seldom lead to the later study of biology. 



Elementary Physical Measurements. — By this title we understand such 

 a course as that now contained in the earlier parts of most School-laboratory 

 n>anuals of physics. Such a course is practically universal ; its adoption 

 is supported by the Head Masters' Association, and recognised by 

 examining bodies. The age at which this and other subjects aVe studied 

 is in accordance with the entrance and leaving ages. Boys of fourteen 

 presumably enter Group B schools without having done the work which 

 is taken from age twelve to fourteen in Group A. In a few cases the 

 elementary practical physics is correlated with mathematics ; in many 

 cases the absence of such correlation is deplored. 



Elementary Heat. — This subject is universally taught, and may be 

 considered a necessary preliminary to or accompaniment of elementary 

 •chemistry. 



Systematic Physics.— The branches are usually taken in the order 

 mechanics, heat, light, electricity. In a few cases mechanics is dropped 

 for a time after the conclusion of the mensuration course and begun 

 again on a higher plane with the aid of mathematical equipment at age 

 ■seventeen. In some Group A schools electricity is introduced early as 



1908. 



M M 



