312 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
ceptions, little or no special provision is made for their teaching.* 
The subjects are generally relegated to a junior master, who has 
little or no apparatus at his disposal, and who has to teach his 
classes in any ordinary class-room, whether it be suited for the 
purpose or not. The teacher, too, has usually been selected for his 
special aptitude in any but science subjects, the latter being 
mere makeweights. The time given to the subjects is also 
very short, in most cases ranging from one to two hours per 
week. Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at 
that the lessons, instead of developing the observational and 
reasoning faculties, often degenerate into mere lectures on the 
part of the teacher, and a committal of the information received 
by the pupils to notes and memory, without a single practical 
demonstration having been afforded. One result of such work 
is, of course, to lower the subjects in the estimation, not only of 
the general teaching community, but of the pupils themselves, 
who, in later years, may well look back with distrust on the so- 
called science they have been crammed with. The causes of 
this state of things are not very far toseek. Among them 
are :—(1) The fact that science-teachers have very frequently been 
men of one idea, who lauded their particular subject to a degree 
which was nauseous to teachers of other—and in their own 
estimation—far more important subjects, and though this class 
of men is not now nearly so common, many teachers of twenty 
or thirty years’ standing can testify to their former frequent 
occurrence. (2) The heads of schools, whose opinions ought to be 
of great weight with the governing bodies, having been generally 
selected chiefly for proficiency in the teaching of classics or ma- 
thematics, are naturally inclined to follow to a very considerable 
extent the systeras of instruction in which they were themselves 
educated. (3) The strong scientific reaction which is permeating 
University teaching everywhere, is only now beginning to make 
itself felt in the schools, as it is only within the last ten or fifteen 
years that men who have made science their speciality have been 
turned out in any appreciable number. (4) A spirit of conser- 
vatism—outcome of the old scholastic spirit—still survives 
strongly, and has been further strengthened by that caution 
which is necessary in introducing new subjects and modes into 
our educational systems. These are no doubt some of the causes 
which have tended to retard the advancement of science to a 
first place in the school curriculum. 
* Tt is due to the Board of Governors of the Dunedin High Schools to say that 
the arrangements made for science-teaching in the schools under their care are ex 
cellent, and are such as are not possessed by any other secondary school in the 
Colony. The teacher’s time is devoted to science alone, and he is not reponsible for 
nor is called upon to teach any other subjects. A large and specially fitted labora- 
tory is set apart for his exclusive use, and is supplied with every requisite for the 
practical teaching of chemistry and botany, the two subjects which are taken up. 
The arrangements which are being made in the new school now in course of con- 
struction are on a still more elaborate and complete scale. Under such circum- 
stances the author feels that he can speak freely as one who is placed above the very 
defects he seeks to remedy 
