344 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
One-Year Class work, Extension work, or popular lecture work in Natural 
Science.’ 
Many men possessing the qualities desired would, no doubt, readily 
respond to an invitation to take charge of science courses, if the remuneration 
was sufficiently attractive and assured. ‘The remuneration can be provided 
if the classes are sufficiently well organised and attended, because they can 
then earn the grant under the Board of Education regulations. But attend- 
ances depend on the extent of the demand for science. Hence follows the 
quandary—on the one hand it is the supply which creates the demand, and 
on the other that the supply cannot be provided until there is a sufficient 
demand to make it worth while. 
5. Aims and Purpose of Science Teaching in Adult Education. 
Several correspondents deal with the ‘ popularisation of science ’ in adult 
classes. In this connection it is important to understand what are the aims 
of those who are already teaching science, as well as of those who wish to 
see the study of science more widely adopted in these classes. It is equally 
important to know what are the desires that prompt (or might prompt) an 
adult student to take up the serious study of any branch of Natural Science. 
These two factors—the aim of the teacher, and the purpose of the student 
—must meet somewhere in sympathetic co-operation, if a true appreciation 
of science by people generally is to be assured. 
The Committee is not primarily concerned with the provision for 
vocational or technical training, but more particularly with the systematic 
presentation of scientific methods and results, both pure and applied. But 
it is realised that these two kinds of teaching often overlap in the same 
course and also that the aims and motives of teachers and of students vary. 
“'The purpose of the science lectures and classes in the evening institutes, 
and in other institutions referred to, is purely cultural. "The aim is to 
foster the good use of leisure and to satisfy the wishes of those who seek 
to know something about science, what it has done for mankind and its 
practical application in matters of daily life’ (G. H. Gater, L.C.C.). 
‘If the important part taken by the Adult Education Movement in the 
national life is to be shaped in the light of the rapidity of the changes which 
are taking place owing to the increased application of scientific invention to 
modern production, it is essential that the education which it provides 
should be wide and liberal, and assign an adequate place in its scheme for 
the teaching of science. The Adult Education Movement cannot afford to 
neglect scientific thought and knowledge. Ignorance of the influence of 
science should belong to the past, and we can only be confident of future 
progress if we understand all the forces which are contributing to the 
re-shaping of social life ’ (W.E.A. Science Report, 1932). 
“The purpose of science teaching in adult classes is obviously not to 
turn out specialists or experts; it is to make the student intelligently 
interested in the world in which he lives and to enable him to understand 
the fundamental facts of life. If he is taught to regard the world merely 
from the economic and political point of view, his thinking will be one-sided 
and incomplete. And the so-called ‘ cultural ’subjects, with no background 
of scientific method, frequently lead to slovenly thinking, and a smug self- 
satisfaction, which needs to be broken down by the discipline of scientific 
study ’ (Prof. Peers, Nottingham U.C.). 
‘From the point of view of the organisers, science classes, like all other 
classes held under the Adult Education Regulations, are, in the words of 
