August 24, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



287 



and most direct application in connection 

 with them ; so the characteristics of the 

 scientific spirit indicated above are more 

 easily and effectively developed in contact 

 with the peculiar materials of science. 



But I have still stronger claim to make 

 for science as an essential constituent of 

 all education, and that is 



2, It gives a training peculiar to itself, and 

 one that is essential in every ivell-balanced edu- 

 cation. — The real educational significance 

 of the training in laboratories devoted to 

 science is very commonly overlooked, both 

 by those who know nothing about it from 

 personal experience, and even by those who 

 are teachers of science. Many learn to go 

 through the motions without appreciating 

 the substratum of educational philosophy. 

 Moreover, the knowledge of the educa- 

 tional significance of this special form of 

 training has been slowly developed as the 

 results have appeared. 



Perhaps the earliest, and of course the 

 most superficial form of statement explain- 

 ing the purpose of scientific study was that 

 it teaches the laboratory method. The in- 

 ference was that the sciences are of no 

 particular educational advantage in them- 

 selves, but are merely useful in teaching a 

 valuable method. In so far as this empha- 

 sized the fact that reading or reciting about 

 science cannot be regarded as training 

 in science, and in so far as it recognized 

 that science is to be credited with introduc- 

 ing a revolutionary and invaluable educa- 

 tional method, the statement is true enough ; 

 but to regard these purely incidental results 

 as being in any sense the end of scientific 

 training is far enough from the mark. The 

 laboratory method holds no more relation 

 to science than do algebraic symbols to 

 algebra ; they both merely represent useful 

 machinery for getting at the real results. 

 And further, as has been shown, if the 

 teaching of a method is the only function 

 of science in education, when this method 



has been learned and has become univer- 

 sally applied, the mission of science in ed- 

 ucation is at an end. 



Another commonly stated advantage of 

 training in science is that it cultivates the 

 power and habit of observation. This is 

 certainly true, but with equal certainty this 

 result is not peculiar to scientific training, 

 for it belongs to the laboratory method, and 

 appears whenever the method is applied to 

 any subject. It may be claimed that the 

 most direct and tangible materials for ob- 

 servation fall within the province of sci- 

 ence, but this is a difference of degree rather 

 than of kind, and therefore the result may 

 be obtained apart from science. It is true 

 that in the elementary stretches of educa- 

 tion the methods are still prevailingly con- 

 ventional, and therefore, stunt the natural 

 powers of observation. The fine tentacles 

 of inquiry which are put out in every di- 

 rection by the child thus become atrophied, 

 so that when later in his educational ex- 

 perience he is introduced into the labora- 

 tory he is as helpless as though transferred 

 to a totally different set of life conditions. 

 It takes almost a surgical operation to open 

 his eyes, and he is apt to have lost not only 

 the power but with it also the desire of 

 observation. This wholesale and criminal 

 mutilation of natural powers, however, is 

 not the fault of the subjects studied, but of 

 the conventional methods employed, which 

 demand faith rather than sight, memory 

 rather than reason, the sacrifice of truth to 

 conventional ideas. To keep these impor- 

 tant powers functional may still be an im- 

 portant mission of science in elementary ed- 

 ucation, but when the conventional method 

 has been i-eplaced by the natural in all sub- 

 jects of study, this mission also will have 

 been fulfilled, and will be recognized merely 

 as an incident in scientific training. 



Those who are accustomed to look a lit- 

 tle beneath the surface before formulating 

 a statement are very apt to be content with 



