EDUCATIONAL AND SCHOOL 

 SCIENCE. 



ADDBESS TO SECTION L (EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE) BY 



Sir ETOHARD GREGORY, F.R.A.S., F.Inst. P., 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



The Educational Science Section of the British Association attains 

 its majority this year ; and as a member privileged to assist in its birth, 

 and associated with it in one capacity or" another throughout its life, 

 it is difficult to resist the t-emptation to survey its growth and manifold 

 activities with the object of making performance during the years of 

 adolescence the ground of promise for the future. But though this may 

 be an appropriate theme to expound when an organisation has passed 

 naturally through the various stages from infancy to maturity, it is not 

 so apt on the present occasion; for, trite as is the simile, it is true to 

 say that, like Pallas Athene from the head of Zeus, this section sprang 

 into being fully grown and clothed, and its form to-day is much the 

 same as it was twenty-one years ago. 



Those of us who have been constant votaries at the new shrine then 

 erected can recall many offerings which the goddess of wisdom would 

 approve — seeds and flowers and fruits from the extensive and diversely 

 fertile fields in which educational work is carried on. "We have also 

 seen a succession of distinguished presidents, too many of whom, how- 

 ever, have taken only a transient part in the activities of the section, 

 coming before us for a single session and then passing from our view. 

 The other sections of the Association are schools in which scientific! 

 workers graduate and from which they are never entirely separated,i 

 whether they reach the dignity of the presidential chair or not.] 

 For some reasons it is, perhaps, to be regretted that our section has nol| 

 hitherto been so self-sufficing in the supply of presidents, but fertilisa- 

 tion from other fields has its advantages, and our visitors have always 

 brought us stimulating principles of growth, so that I follow them with 

 much diffidence, particularly as this is the first time on which one 

 who has been Secretary and Recorder of the section has attained to 

 the honour of the presidency. 



The section was established to consolidate the claims staked out by 

 workers in different educational provinces, and promote common interest 

 in their development as a whole. As Professor H. E. Armstrong ex- 

 plained at the opening meeting, it was proposed to devote attention to 

 education in all its branches with the object of introducing scientific 

 conceptions into every sphere of educational activity ; that is, concep- 



