SCIENCE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
NOWHERE, perhaps, is the curious conservatism of the English character more strongly displayed than in the management of our great Public Schools. During the past three hundred years, the spread of scientific knowledge has revolu- tionised European modes of thought, has fundamentally altered the European idea of the Universe, of the Earth's place in the grand whole, and of man's place on the earth, and has profoundly modified European social life and poli- tical Institutions; but to our great Schools, Science has been as if it had made no progress. To those who have regulated the studies of those places of learning, it has not appeared at all
important that English gentlemen should be able to follow with intelligence the fruitful researches to which the pioneers of modern thought were devoting themselves, should be capable of appreciating the discoveries which were abridging space, ap- proximating classes, and calling into existence industries, acti- vities, and relations that are gradually transforming the ancient order of things,--in a word, that they should be in sympathy with the modern spirit. It speaks well for the healthy influence
exercised by the peculiar organisation of our public schools, perhaps also for the inherent vigour of the race, that our upper classes, nevertheless, have not lost their hold upon the nation, have not become mere obstructions, as in France, or sunk into fainiants, as in parts of Italy. But we must not embark upon the interesting political speculation which is thus opened up before us. Of course such a state of
things has not been allowed to continue without protest and controversy, and some little has been done to make room for science-teaching in our schools. It has, however, been very little. The Sixth Report of the Royal Commission on scientific instruction now lies before us. It is confined exclusively to an examination into the provision made in the various secondary schools throughout the country for the teaching of science, and this is what appears. Returns, more or less complete, were received from 128 endowed schools in all, and out of this total, "science is taught in only 63, and of these only 13 have a laboratory, and only 18 apparatus, often very scanty."
Even these figures, however, give but a very imperfect notion of the neglect with which Science is treated. It will hardly be believed that there are no more than 18 of these schools which devote as much as four hours in the week to scientific instruction, that 16 actually afford no longer time than two hours a week, and seven think an hour sufficient. These, however, are the good examples. There are 30 schools in which no definite time whatever is allotted to scientific study. Again, out of the 128 schools, only 13 give any place at all to science in their examinations, and "only two attach a weight to science in the examinations equal to that of classics or mathematics."
If, now, we attempt to account for this extraordinary neglect of Science, in a country whose greatness, if not its very inde- pendence, depends upon the skill of its population in using the forces of Nature as their servants, we find the blame to rest in a very great measure on the Universities. The older Univer- sities were founded and attained celebrity at a time when Natural Science did not exist, and they have never admitted science to an equality with classics and mathematics. The feeling of Oxford and Cambridge has naturally guided the Public Schools. The masters are, almost without exception, even to-day, Oxford and Cambridge men, and are penetrated with the Oxford and Cambridge spirit. Moreover, the parents of the boys, and the boys themselves, necessarily attach im- portance to the studies which will win honours and distinction at the Universities, while they disregard studies that will in no way help them in their careers. Lastly, the neglect of science at the Universities causes the schools to suffer from a want of competent teachers. Most of the Head Masters in their evidence refer to this difficulty, but at the same time, they are unwilling to look elsewhere for the kind of men they want. Thus the Head Master of Rugby says :—" I would here observe that a mere chemist, geologist, or naturalist, however eminent in his own special department, would hardly be able to take his place in a body of Masters composed of University men, without some injurious effect upon the position which science ought to occupy in the school In preferring the two older Universities, I do so only by reason of their stronger general sympathies with public - school teaching. I am aware that if I merely wanted a highly scientific man in any branch, I might find him equally in Dublin, London, or at a Scotch University." In plain language, trades-unionism for- bids an ugly competition. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that in the large middle-class schools which look rather to the University of London than to Oxford and Cambridge— and which are, very rarely, endowed schools, usually, indeed, private schools of a high order—science is already taught, and taught well, to a very large extent. The reason is simple. The University of London requires proof of thorough scientific teaching, even in her earliest examination,—the Matriculation examination. And what she requires she gets, just as what Oxford and Cambridge require, they get.
A second cause of the neglect of science-teaching is the poverty of a great number of the schools. The Royal Commissioners admit the force of this plea, but, they point out that the difficulty is not insuperable, even in the cases
of the smallest schools. In fact, they show in detail that very fair and even valuable work may be done with the aid of extremely cheap apparatus, much of which the stuAlents themselves can be taught to make. Another and a more formidable difficulty is the want of time. Students are now-a-days expected to master so many subjects, that teachers generally declare it impossible to add to the list. But it is obvious that this difficulty can be overcome by a rearrange- ment of studies. In the multitude of subjects now required of schoolboys, some are far more important than others. All, no doubt, have a utility of their own, but as means of develop- ing the mental faculties there is a great difference of value between them. The remedy is, then, to strike out of the curricula the least valuable studies. An additional method of getting over the difficulty is to shorten the time now given to the leading subjects. It will be understood that the Royal Commissioners do not propose to dethrone classics or mathe- matics. Into the old and interminable controversy as -to whether classics are or are not the best educational gymnastics, they very properly do not enter. They assume— and, we have no doubt that all men who have a right to an opinion on the question and are not committed to a theory will agree with them—that Classics, Mathematics, and Natural Seience, all three possess a high educational value, and conse- quently, they propose that all three shall be taught efficiently. But they declare their opinion, at the same time, that both classics and mathematics can be taught as efficiently as ever without so great an expenditure of time.
This brings us to the test-question of the inquiry,—Can. Science be taught in our Public Schools without injury to the general scholarship ? And on this point some very valuable evidence is collected in the appendix to the Report. Mr. Madan, the Senior Master at Eton, says :—" Science work has, no doubt, brought out some (but not many) boys who have previously shown no interest in, or power over, their school studies. Generally speaking, however, the best boys in classics are the best also in natural science." The last sentence is sionficant, as bearing on the question we are here considering. Mr. Wilson, who had had long experience at Rugby, gives still more decisive testimony :—" The opinion of the body of the
Masters," he says, "in brief, is this the school, as a whole, is better for it, and the scholarship is not worse. The number of boys whose industry and attention are not caught by any school study is markedly less ; there is more respect for work and for ability in the different fields now open to boys; and though pursued often with great vigour, and sometimes with great success, by boys distinguished in classics, it is not found to interfere with their proficiency in clas.sics, nor are there any symptoms of over-work in the school." There is much more to the same effect, but we content ourselves with these extracts, and pass on to the recommendations of the Commissioners. Those are but two,—that in all public and endowed schools a substantial portion of the time allotted to study should, throughout the whole course, be devoted to natural science, which, subject to the disPretion of the Governing Bodies, should not be less than six hours a week ; and that in all examinations not less than one-sixth of the marks should be apportioned to natural science. It will be seen that the Commissioners are of opinion that science-teaching should begiir with the school studies. On this question they have collected a large mass of evidence, and they quote in their report the testimony of several distinguished men, to the effect that instruction in science may advan- tageously be given to young children. But of course, it would be necessary to adapt the teaching to the children's capacities. Nobody who has watched the delighted interest with which children listen to simple explanations of the rising and setting of the sun, of the changes of the moon, of the ebb and flow of the tides, and of other great natural phenomena, can doubt, we think, that in this opinion the Commissioners are right. In these everlasting wonders, the interest of each successive generation awakens with the dawn of intelligence. Another excellent feature of the Commissioners' recommendations is that scientific instruction should form part of the regular school-work of every school, and should by no means be relegated to "modern" schools, or "modern sides" of existing schools. Indeed, it would be difficult to devise a plan better calculated to discredit acientific study in schools than that of the Modern Department, which "is regarded as of inferior rank to the Classical, is under-officered, and derives little advantage or strength from its connection with the grammar-school. It is rather an excrescence than an organic part of the school. It exists rather by sufferance than with strong approval." In order that scientific study should take the place which right- fully, belongs to it in the school curriculum, and should be regarded by the boys as of equal importance with their other work, it is clearly necessary, as the Commissioners recommend, that it should form part of the regular school course, through which every boy is, as a rule, expected to pass.
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