588 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 402. 



through scholarships gained by competition 

 and some through training selected teach- 

 ers. The success of the movement for the 

 introduction of science instruction in 

 schools depended on the proper supply of 

 teachers, and even now the demand for 

 men possessing the highest teaching qualifi- 

 cations in science is greater than the sup- 

 ply. It may be said, I think^ that our 

 science teachers from the college have one 

 special qualification, and that is, that be- 

 sides the knowledge of science, practical 

 and theoretical, that they have acquired, 

 they have lived in an atmosphere of what 

 is called research, and which might be 

 called original investigation. Professors, 

 assistants and students alike are impreg- 

 nated with it, and when the teacher so 

 trained takes up his duties in his school 

 he still retains the 'reek' of it. True in- 

 struction in science should, as I have before 

 said, be practical, and practical instruction 

 should certainly include original inquiry 

 into matters old or new. The teacher who 

 retains the 'reek' is the teacher who will 

 prove most successful. It will thus be seen 

 that the state had the task before it, not 

 only of introducing instruction in science, 

 but of training teachers to give such in- 

 struction. This problem is the same as 

 now exists in Ireland, and the experience 

 gained in England can not but be of the 

 greatest use to those at the head of Irish 

 technical education. 



Before concliiding there is one subject 

 that I must lightly touch upon, and that is 

 the supply of teachers other than science 

 teachers. The Education Act of 1870 

 gave the power to elementary schools to 

 train pupil teachers, who in the process of 

 time would become teachers, either by en- 

 tering into a training college by means of 

 a King's Scholarship or, less satisfactorily, 

 by examination. In large towns the need 

 of a proper training for pupil teachers has 

 been felt, and gradually pupil teacher 



centers were established, principally by 

 school boards, Avhere the training could be 

 carried out more or less completely; but 

 in the rural districts and smaller towns the 

 pupil teacher has had to be more or less 

 self-taught, and except in rare cases 'self- 

 taught' means badly taught. The training 

 college authorities make no secret of the 

 fact that one of the two years during which 

 the training of the teacher is carried out 

 has to be devoted more or less to instruct- 

 ing the pupils in subjects they ought to 

 have been taught before they entered the 

 college. Thus all the essential and special 

 instruction which is given has to be prac- 

 tically shortened, and the teacher leaves 

 the college with less training than he 

 should have. 



The new Education Act has put it in the 

 power of the educational authorities to 

 rectify the defects in the training of pupil 

 teachers. It is much to be hoped that 

 councils will separately or in combination 

 either form special centers for the training 

 of all pupil teachers or else give scholar- 

 ships (perhaps aided by the state) to 

 them, to be held at some secondary school 

 receiving the grant for science and recog- 

 nized by the boai'd of education as efficient. 

 The latter plan is one which commends it- 

 self, as it ensures that the student shall 

 associate with others who are not prepar- 

 ing for the same calling in life, and will 

 prevent that narrowness of mind which is 

 inevitable where years are spent in the one 

 atmosphere of pedagogy. The non-resi- 

 dential training college, where the training 

 of the teacher is carried on at some uni- 

 versity college, is an attempt to give 

 breadth of view to him, but if attempted 

 in the earliest years of a teacher's career it 

 will be even more successful. All teaching 

 requires to be improved, and the first step 

 to take in this direction is to educate the 

 pupil teacher from his earliest day's ap- 

 pointment, for his infliience in after years 



