444 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



curriculum is the appointment of inspectors who have themselves received 

 a thorough training in practical studies and experimental teaching. An 

 inspector who may have obtained the highest degree at one of our univer- 

 sities does not necessarily possess the qualiti cations for a good inspector. 

 With the abolition of the system of payment on results, the duties of the 

 inspector have become much more onerous, and different qualifications are 

 needed for the proper discharge of his duties. He must be well grounded 

 in the principles and methods of elementary teaching, in order to be able 

 to ascertain whether the teaching is sound and efficient. He must be able 

 not only to criticise but to suggest, and his criticism and his suggestions 

 must be founded on personal experience, and must be directed towards 

 showing both how good work may be done and how errors may be avoided. 

 Such inspectors might be selected from among head teachers, not neces- 

 sarily of elementary schools, who have acquired experience in arranging 

 courses of study, and have been found most successful in organising and 

 imparting instruction on the lines laid down in this report. 



It will be seen, therefore, that in order to effect reforms in our 

 elementary education in the direction of giving due weight to practical 

 studies, it is necessary in the first place that the curriculum of our train- 

 ing colleges should be modified by introducing, to a larger extent than 

 has yet been done, laboratory and woi'kshop instruction, and by directing 

 the attention of the students to approved methods of experimental teach- 

 ing. It is equally essential that sympathetic and experienced inspectors 

 should be appointed, who will pay due regard to the correlation of the 

 several subjects of instruction, and will see that undue prominence is not 

 given to any particular subject on account of the comparative facility of 

 teaching it, and who, above all, will endeavour so to direct the school 

 work that it shall encourage thinking, and develop constructive ability 

 and aptitudes for study on the part of the children. 



Rej)ort of the Sub-Committee on Arithmetic and Mensuration, consisting 

 of Professor PI. E. Armstrong, Miss A. J. Cooper, Mr. George 

 Fletcher, Mr. W. M. Heller, Dr. C. W. Kimmins, Professoi- J. 

 Perry, Mrs. W. N. Shaw, Miss Edna Walter, and Professor R. A. 

 Gregory (Secretary). 



Becent Movements. 



Since the report of a Committee on the teaching of elementary mathe- 

 matics was presented to the Belfast Meeting of the British Association 

 in 1902, decided changes have taken place in the nature and purpose of 

 mathematical teaching in schools. The appointment of that Committee 

 was the outcome of a discussion on the teaching of elementary mathe- 

 matics opened by Professor J. Perry, F.R.S., at the Glasgow Meeting of 

 the Association in 1901 ; and the attention thus directed to the need for 

 reform led to the formation of similar committees by representative bodies 

 of teachers and others interested in the improvement of mathematical 

 teaching. Reports in which the general views expressed by the British 

 Association Committee received support were also prepared by com- 

 mittees of the Mathematical Association and the Incorporated Association 

 of Assistant-Masters. A syndicate appointed by the University of 

 Cambridge, in December 1902, drew up schedules of propositions in 

 demonstrative geometry and of constructions in practical geometry 



