GENERAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS 329 
The chief causes of the neglect of Biology in schools are said to be: 
(a) The apparent absence of any strongly expressed demand from 
parents and others interested in education. 
(6) Inertia and lack of initiative in the face of established custom in schools 
in which only chemistry and physics are taught. 
(c) A shortage of teachers who have studied biology during their 
University career. 
When a sufficiently strong demand develops there is plenty of evidence 
that many teachers will be willing to acquire the necessary knowledge. 
Some Local Education Authorities and other bodies have already organised 
holiday and evening classes to meet this end. 
Out-of-school activities form an important part of the science teaching 
in many schools. It is satisfactory to note that the need for caution against 
indiscriminate collecting of biological material is being emphasised and the 
desirability of making adequate provision for such material encouraged. 
Conclusions —We suggest that : 
General Science should be taught in all secondary schools and on all 
“ sides ’ of suchschools, inasmuch as a knowledge of General Science forms an 
essential part of a liberal education. It should be regarded as an essential 
element in a school curriculum, and after the lapse of an agreed number of 
years no School Certificate should be granted unless the school is certified 
as efficient in this respect. 
A course should not be called General Science unless it provides a co- 
ordinated survey of physics, chemistry and biology, using these words in 
a wide sense. ‘The essential features of such courses should be constant 
emphasis that Nature is not partitioned into special sciences but that prac- 
tical problems can be attacked by a scientific method which is much the same 
whether, for convenience, the problem is considered in terms of one or 
other particular branch of knowledge. ‘The technique of the sciences must 
often differ, but every teacher should take care to draw attention to their 
essential unity of outlook. 
So far as is practicable under the present system of School Certificate 
Examinations, the teaching of General Science should take place free from 
the restrictive influence of examinations. It is especially important that 
when General Science is taken in all schools there should be wide liberty 
of choice of emphasis so that teachers may follow to some extent their own 
interests and make full use of the school environment. Care will be neces- 
sary to avoid inexact and unscientific teaching when a very wide syllabus 
is in use. 
University authorities responsible for the conduct of University Entrance 
Examinations in Science should demand that those candidates who propose 
to proceed to a degree in Science should have received a preliminary ground- 
work of General Science. 
A more intimate system of co-operation between school and school might 
overcome many of the difficulties of material and equipment experienced 
by some schools in the teaching of biology. 
There is a shortage, not so much of qualified botanists and zoologists as 
of teachers who possess the particular kind of ability and training necessary 
for the making of efficient teachers of biology. 
General Science demands in a teacher wider knowledge and understanding 
of scientific procedure than the specialist subjects do. To be effective and 
stimulating the teacher must have real experience of the practical side of 
all three main divisions of the subject—biology, chemistry and physics. 
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