346 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
part in working-class movements, an aim which has been present in the 
minds of many associated with the Adult Education Movement. But this 
purpose is achieved in the case of science through the other purposes, such, 
for example, as (2), (3), (4) and (5) above. Ability to understand the point 
of view of others which may well be fostered by such studies, may be con- 
sidered as akin to (2), (3) and (7) above’ (D. M. Stewart, Glasgow). 
Mr. S, Myers, Head of the Deptford Men’s Institute, writing in the light 
of many years’ experience, and entirely as a matter of personal opinion, says : 
‘ At the L.C.C. Men’s Institutes we adopt a special angle of approach. 
We have found it not only sound but essential to proceed from the immediate 
interests of the students or prospective students, and to build round them 
a progressive educational course. A few examples may make the attitude 
clear. 
“(1) We have classes in ‘ Wireless.’ These have their origin in the fact 
that most working-class homes possess a wireless set. Men talk wireless in 
their workshops, in public-houses, and elsewhere. Realising this, we invite 
men to meet a wireless expert once a week, thus focusing the wireless 
interest in a class. A syllabus is framed to ensure that the class makes 
a sound theoretical study of the subject. 
‘ (2) The ownership of a motor-cycle leads to an interest in internal 
combustion engines, magnetos, carburettors, electric lighting, etc. Here 
again, men who own motor cycles or cars, or who aspire to own them, or 
who drive other people’s cars, are drawn to classes in petrol engines (with 
car lighting, ignition, and starting) held in the Men’s Institutes. ; 
“(3) The widespread use of photographic apparatus leads in the same 
way to an interest in lenses, light, colour, and the chemicals used in the 
preparation of sensitised film and plates, and in the developing and printing 
of photographs. Hence classes in “‘ The Chemistry of Photography ”’ at 
several Men’s Institutes. 
“(4) Poultry, rabbits, cage-birds and domestic pets are extensively kept 
—by way of a hobby—in working-class districts. If fifteen or twenty men 
can be brought together by a desire to know more about these creatures, 
we open Poultry Keeping, Care of Animals, and similar classes.’ 
“In all these classes the instruction is at once practical and scientific. 
Rule-of-thumb is discouraged, and the object is—as my examples may 
indicate—to proceed from practice and observation to general principles 
and thence to the application of principles. The effectiveness of the 
instruction in poultry-keeping, for example, is observable in the extra- 
ordinary success of these ‘‘ backyard poultry-keepers and breeders in com- 
petition with the poultry industry at the appropriate national open 
competitions and laying tests.’ 
Though vocational science is outside the terms of reference, the scientific 
basis of industry offers a promising field of adult education. Professor 
Julian Huxley writes that ‘ industrial work should be more directly linked 
up with its scientific basis; scientific work and invention should be 
encouraged among workers in factories, and knowledge of the scientific basis 
of the processes on which they are employed should be made more accessible 
to such workers.’ 
‘The aim of the Adult Biology Class is not to produce naturalists—not 
more than 1 in 20 average adult student has the makings of a naturalist in 
him—but to make intelligent citizens capable of a scientific attitude towards 
public questions and their own personal matters’ (Dr. Norman Walker, Leeds). 
The Joint Committee in Belfast, representing the Extra-mural Depart- 
ment, Queen’s University, and the W.E.A., ‘seeks to give its students 
knowledge which will enable them to utilise their leisure time in the best 
