220 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



young student fresh from training will be in difficulties. To help him 

 it is necessary to prepare a working syllabus in such explanatory detail 

 that it amounts to notes of lessons. Theorists will hold up their hands 

 in horror at such a suggestion, but I know from long experience that it 

 is the only road to success. By working conscientiously through such 

 a scheme the inexperienced teacher gains a grasp of the purpose and 

 method of the course that he can obtain in no other way. For the 

 preparation of these teaching syllabuses we need the co-operation of 

 teachers and inspectors of long and thoughtful experience. 



Demonstration lessons play an important part : they give purpose and 

 meaning to individual work, but alone can never give the reality to words 

 that comes from personal contact with things and phenomena. Pro- 

 vision for individual practical work is essential in every type of school ; 

 central and secondary schools are provided with satisfactory laboratories, 

 and committees spend large sums upon manual and art instruction in 

 higher schools, but plead poverty when the most modest demands are 

 made for practical instruction in elementary schools in which the need is 

 more urgent. Some elementary schools have — and all should have — 

 a work-room fitted with flat-topped tables and provided with a gas and 

 water supply. 



Period 14 to i6 Years. — At no period of school life does the pupil react 

 more to his treatment than between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years. 

 His interests become keener and more serious, and his powers of initiative 

 and judgment develop if not suppressed by an unyielding school regime. 

 Both in the central and secondary school the course in science should be 

 of a general character, but not necessarily the same in all schools or in all 

 groups of the same school. A more systematic treatment of elementary 

 physics, chemistry, electricity, biology and hygiene will necessitate 

 revision of much done in the previous two years ; it will not be possible 

 to deal with more than fundamentals, and no attempt should be made to 

 force instruction up to the present standards demanded by school certifi- 

 cate examinations in specific subjects. Instruction should be essentially 

 practical, demonstration lessons bearing the same relation to practical 

 work as in the earlier period. 



Conditions of Practical Work. — The teacher should give many 

 qualitative demonstrations not necessary for individual repetition ; the 

 laboratory exercises should lead to definite observational or quantitative 

 results, and should be performed always with the eye on the clock, for 

 quick work implies concentration and success. Laboratory work in 

 groups of two or even more pupils is responsible for the formation of 

 desultory and inaccurate habits of work, and is tolerated in no other form 

 of practical instruction. Over-large classes, poor equipment, and lack of 

 laboratory preparation lead to low-pressure work, waste of time and small 

 achievement. 



The organisation and supervision of laboratory work makes severe 

 demands upon the science teacher ; a practical class of more than twenty 

 pupils cannot be taught by one teacher, and the normal school groups are 

 usually divided or, alternatively, a second teacher called in. If the science 

 master is to devote his whole energies to the problems of instruction he 



