3IO REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



may be in some doubt as to the precise means whereby these aims can be 

 achieved. The issue of a memorandum by the Board of Education (A.E.R. 

 No. 7) in 1935 appears to have caused some confusion in this respect, 

 although it does not appear that the Board have placed any obstacle in the 

 way of any reasonable course in natural science for adult students. 



The Committee consider that this memorandum was based upon a wrong 

 conception of the scope and function of science teaching in adult education, 

 in particular : 



(i) Its insistence upon experimental work is too rigid, and fails to recog- 

 nise the difference in the conditions governing adult education from those 

 of academic work. 



(2) Its partial condemnation of the historical method for the teaching of 

 science is not justified by experience, which shows that a student can acquire 

 a valuable degree of understanding even of an experimental science such as 

 chemistry, through the skilled presentation of the history of the science. 



(3) It underrates the social implications of science. In adult education 

 it is necessary to begin at a point where the interest of the students can be 

 secured. It is to a great extent in social history and conditions that they 

 are interested, and the impact of science on the life of the community and 

 of themselves is of fundamental importance and forms an excellent starting 

 point for arousing interest in the study of science for its own sake. 



(4) Adult classes do not, and in the Committee's view should not, view 

 the study of science with the somewhat academic outlook that still obtains 

 in the Universities and schools. To the adult student science should be 

 a branch of human study associated more or less closely with human 

 activities, since scientific achievement has a direct contact with social 

 development. 



4. Suggestions for the Teaching of Scientific Subjects. 



The Committee realise that there will be a great diversity of opinion 

 among tutors and organisers as to the manner in which a subject should be 

 studied by adult classes. Equally there is considerable variation of views 

 as to what should be the content of a course in a particular science. This 

 will naturally vary with the type of student composing each class. 



But with these reservations the Committee offer the following specimen 

 suggestions (which cover only a few subjects) in the hope that they will be 

 of service to those engaged in the teaching of science to adult classes. 



Anthropology and Geography. 

 One Year Courses. 



(a) The Evolution of Civilisation. — Man becomes man on grasslands and 

 learns to walk erect, he becomes a hunter, woman remains a collector. 

 The spread of desert over erstwhile grasslands through climatic changes 

 following the passing away of the great ice sheets of the Pleistocene Ice 

 Ages leads to concentration of population near rivers and springs and to 

 care of plants (by the women) whence origins of cultivation in Egypt, 

 Mesopotamia, etc. At first women's work, but later on domestication of 

 animals brings in the men and the plough. Settled life near regularly 

 flooding rivers leads to observation of stars and formation of a calendar, 

 priesthoods, temples, markets, cities. Spread of civilisation into various 

 regions may be outlined. 



