SCIENCE DEMONSTRATION IN SCHOOLS. 561 
opinions of a larger number of people than I like to think of, 
and the concealed convictions of at least as many more. It js 
with the view of making known what has actually been done 
in this direction in two of the largest cities of the empire, 
Liverpool and Birmingham,—both as regards methods and 
results,—as well as of detailing the objections raised to the 
scheme, and the way in which they have been met, that the 
following remarks are offered to the Society. I venture to 
take it for granted that the Society would view with warm 
approval any well-considered efforts to bring home to the 
young of all classes the elementary truths and phenomena of 
Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology, not only for the sake of 
the actual practical knowledge thus given, but, and perhaps 
still more, for the sake of showing the immense value of 
Science properly taught, as an imstrument of education. I 
specially say, properly taught, for the essence of the scheme of 
which I am about to speak consists in the manner of teaching ; 
hence the title of my paper, “Science Demonstration in Ele- 
mentary Schools.” 
There is, I believe, good foundation for the remark that the 
best elementary schools of twenty years ago were nearly, if not 
quite, equal to those of to-day ; and that the improvement in 
the intervening period, of which so much has been said, has 
been rather in the direction of the guantity of the work (by 
a multiplication of good schools of one pattern) than in 
its guality. It is to this latter that I am about to ask your 
attention. 
It will, I think, be acknowledged by those whose experience 
enables them to judge, that one of the great shortcomings of 
the present system is the mechanical nature of the work done, 
which reduces the children to the state of machines rather 
than of thinking individuals. The Government inspectors com- 
plain unceasingly of the monotony, want of ease and power, 
and lack of “general intelligence” exhibited by the children. 
They read correctly, but the words represent or convey 20 
ideas to their minds. “They can” (to quote an official utter- 
ance) “usually work ‘straightforward’ sums with quickness 
and precision, but they rarely succeed in solving the easiest 
problem.” In an ablearticle in the April number of the J/odern 
Review, on “ The Overstrain in Education,” are various state- 
ments by teachers of large experience as to the evil effects of 
the “ Payment by Results,” and of the individual examination 
system ; I will only trouble you with two—“ There is not time 
to train children to think,’ and “ What will pass, not what will 
educate, is the incentive.” In fact, of the two great mistakes 
which, according to the author of this article, vitiate the whole 
organization of English education, from the elementary - 
schools upwards, the one with which we are concerned 
to-day is, the conception of intellectual training as the ac- 
quisition of information, rather than as the development of 
aculty. 
