348 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



been spent on the repairing of instruments and on labour. It is requested 

 that the remainder, if any by the time of the Cambridge Meeting, be allocated 

 for use in the latter part of this year (1938) and that the Committee be kept 

 in being. A full financial statement will be available by the time of the 

 Cambridge Meeting. 



INFORMATIVE CONTENT OF EDUCATION. 



Report of the Committee appointed to consider and report on the gaps in the 

 informative content of education, with special reference to the curricula 

 of schools (Sir Richard Gregory, F.R.S., Chairman ; Mr. G. D. 

 DuNKERLEY, Vice-Chairman ; Mr. A. E. Henshall, Secretary ; 

 Prof. C. W. Attlee, Miss L. Higson, Mr. H. G. Wells, Mr. A. 

 Gray Jones). 



Introduction. 



At the Nottingham Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, Mr. H. G. Wells, in his Presidential Address to Section L, 

 took as his subject ' The Informative Content of Education,' and outlined 

 what he considered should be a minimum curriculum for all pupils. 

 Consequent upon what was then said, this Committee was appointed ' To 

 consider and report on the gaps in the informative content of education, 

 with special reference to the curricula of schools.' The Committee had 

 therefore to investigate in what way the actual work of the schools con- 

 formed with the minimum curriculum proposed by Mr. Wells. 



An Analysis of Mr. Wells's Proposals. 



The first step taken was to prepare an analysis of the curriculum suggested 

 by Mr. Wells. For this purpose both his address and its illustrative chart 

 were examined and an attempt was made to relate the proposals to the actual 

 conditions of school organisation. It will be recalled that Mr. Wells 

 divided his curriculum into Grades, of which A, B and C gave what he 

 regarded as the absolute minimum for all pupils, although he added 

 Grades D , E and F. It was with the first three, therefore, that this Committee 

 was primarily concerned. 



Fortunately Mr. Wells indicated the time which in his view should be 

 given each week to this aspect of school work and also the total number of 

 hours to be allocated to each grade. From these facts it became obvious 

 that the information included in Grade A was intended for pupils between 

 the ages of 5 and 7, that in Grade B for pupils of the ages 7 to 11, and 

 Grade C for those aged 11 to 14 plus. The grades thus corresponded 

 roughly to the divisions of the English elementary school system, viz. 

 Infants, Juniors and Seniors. 



The examination of the speech and chart, therefore, enabled the following 

 analysis to be prepared and the sections to be taken in infants', junior and 

 senior schools to be indicated. 



