Mr. Forster, speaking after Sir John Lubbock at the Bradford
Mechanics' Institute, on Tuesday, defended the study of history, intelligently taught, as a discipline for children, against even the intelligent teaching of science, but protested against the attempt to contrast the unintelligent teaching of history with the in- telligent teaching of science. That is a very judicious remark, but there is this at least to be said for Sir John Lubbock, that history is just one of the subjects which is most likely to be unintelligently taught. Any ignorant man who can string together a few facts may fancy himself competent to teach hie- tory, but he would be soon pulled up by sheer technical difficul- ties in the attempt to teach science. Mr. Forster agreed with Sir John Lubbock in comparing disparagingly the study of grammar with that of science for elementary schools, and perhaps they are right. Grammar thoroughly taught, especially the grammar of a dead language, is one of the finest instruments of intellectual discipline in the world ; but it can hardly be so taught in elementary schools, and it is certain that an intelligent teacher who is master of the first principles of science could awaken much more interest in the minds of children in any given time by teach- ing them elementary science, than by teaching them elementary English grammar.
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