530 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



othel'wise the majoriiy of boys leave entirely ignorant of a subject the 

 applications of which will meet them in everyday life. Sound is usually 

 omitted ; when introduced it appears late, and is perhaps retained for 

 examination purposes. 



Systematic Chemistry^ with few exceptions, is studied for the last two 

 years. 



Biology. — In Group A schools biology only appears as a class- 

 subject in connection with agriculture. Interesting experiments in 

 rural education are being made, and botany is prominent in the pro- 

 gramme ; otherwise the absence of botanical teaching in boys' schools is 

 markedly in contrast with the practice in schools for girls. In a few 

 cases lessons in physiology are given at age fifteen-sixteen. As a rule, 

 biology is taught only to boys intended for the medical profession, and is 

 a post-matriculation subject. 



Physiography, Geography, a?id Geology, — We do not include these 

 in our tables, as they do not appear to be among the responsibilities 

 of the scientific staff at present. In a few instances mention is made 

 of them, and some attempts to synthetise a boy's scientific knowledge 

 through the medium of geography are discoverable. 



The science work of the classical side of higher secondary schools 

 (Group B) is not suflficiently stated in the replies, the majority of science 

 masters confining their statement of curriculum to the work done in the 

 divisions wherein science is an important branch of the instruction. 

 From statistics presented by Mr. E. E. Thwaites to the Leicester 

 meeting of Section L in 1907, it appears that in secondary day schools all 

 boys over twelve take science, and in twenty-nine public schools less than 

 60 per cent, of the boys take the general science course of four hours a 

 week. Some of our correspondents state that science on the classical 

 Bide is very weak ; there is no favourable report in this connection. 



III. Replies to Questions 3 and 6 are considered together ; see VI. 



IV. On the Use of Text-books. — The reports received are clear and 

 emphatic that text-books are not used, and ought not to be used, in the 

 youngest classes. They are equally clear that text-books are used in the 

 higher classes. At age nearly sixteen, or in Forms V. and VL, or in 

 the last year before an examination, text-books are usefully introduced. 

 The reasons given for using text-books are various — for reference, for 

 preparation, for specialists, for examinees, for revision, for boys who have 

 been absent. Up to fifteen, success appears to depend on carefully 

 prepared lessons, followed by a self-reliant attempt to write a jplain, 

 accurate account of what has been done. Text-books when first intro- 

 duced are employed to supplement the tutorial work, and only at a 

 much later stage, depending on the intelligence of the boys, can a book 

 be employed instead of a lecture — i.e., for the acquisition of facts or 

 apprehension of a course of reasoning. Fairly intelligent boys about 

 fifteen years old, who have been learning science for two years, can use 

 text-books for home work, but not as a substitute for lectures. Many 

 boys appear to have very little power of reading for themselves, but that 

 is perhaps a reason for encouraging them to try. Text-books seem useful 

 in physics rather sooner than in chemistry. There is a loss of keenness 

 on the part of the boys who can find the result of an experiment in the 

 book before they perform it. The use of laboratory guides seems to 

 depend on the preference of the teacher rather than on the intelligence of 

 the bovs, Where clear oral directions are given^ and all the boys are 



