EDUCATION NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15306, 20 May 1913, Page 4

EDUCATION NOTES.

- BY MENTOR. . ■

Sir Archibald Geikie, veteran scientist and President of the Royal Society, delivered, some weeks ago, an able • and illuminating lecture to the Association of Public School Science Masters,' in the course of which he traced the • wonderful advance made during the last half-century in the teaching of science both in. _ the secondary schools and in the universities throughout the United Kingdom.'Sir Archibald showed that 60 years ago the teaching of even the rudiments ;of a knowledge of Nature formed no part of the ordinary curriculum of study. Here and there, indeed, there might bo found an enlightened headmaster who, impressed with the profound interest and the great educational value of the natural sciences, contrived to find time, amid his other duties, to discourse to his pupils on that subject, and sought to arouse in them an appreciation of the infinite beauty, the endless variety, the ordered harmony, and the strange mystery of the world in which they lived. He might try ' and gain their attention by performing a few simple experiments illustrative of some of the fundamental principles .of • physics or chemistry, or by disclosing to their young eyes some of the marvels which they might discover for themselves ; among the plants and the animals of the countryside.

Such broadminded instructors, however, were few, and they were far ahead of their time. There "were then no special science teachers, no school laboratories, no proper school museums. The range : of instruction in the public schools still. lay within literary lines, pretty much as '? it had existed for centuries; excellent, indeed, as far as it went,, but out of date, and out of sympathy with the modern advance of knowledge and culture all over the world. Boys left school for the -most part profoundly ignorant of Nature,- save insofar as they had been able ,to pick up information by the way, from their own observation, reading or reflection. At the universities they fared little better. Chairs for the cultivation of ". various branches of science had indeed been founded there, but the duties of professors were usually considered ..to consist chiefly or . solely in the delivery of lectures whicfi'were often dull enough, and, where not required in reading for degrees, would attract but scanty audiences. _An enthusiastic or eloquent lecturer, might gather around him a goodly company of listeners, as in geologv Bucklarid used to': do at Oxford, and'Sedgwi6k at Cambridge. But the laboratory work and experimental demonstrations, now admitted to be so essential, had hardly begun to be instituted in the universities. Lord Kelvin's famous physical laboratory, ; one of the earliest institutions of v the kind, was started by him only '-; about the year 1850, and that of his friend Tait at Edinburgh was not set up until some years later. - .■; -';.".'' '• "

Sir Archibald went on to show that, 50 years -ago, it was quite possible for a man to have carried off the most valuable prizes at one of i. the 'great, public schools and to have taken a good degree at the end of .his "university career, and yet, incredible as it may now .seem,, to come forth into the world ignorant of even the rudiments of any branch of natural science, and ■; {■ consequently without; the knowledge and training that would enable him intelligently to appreciate the nature and interconnection of the discoveries; in science which were working such changes in the modern world, and throwing such a flood of new light into our conceptions of the universe. "I remember } meeting," said Sir Archibald, ,'*, i n; my early youth, a man of this type. ; He had taken a brilliant degree in r Arts at 'Cambridge, distinguishing himself, more particularly _ in, classics, and ;on some of my geological rambles in the West Highlands I found; him to be an intelligent and pleasant companion. He showed much interest in what I was doing, asking innumerable questions about it and; about ; the most, familiar features of out-of-door _ Nature, showing, however, at : the same ■' time a most -extraordinary degree of ignorance regarding some of the most everyday ; phenomena, ] and a curious difficulty, or almost ; incapacity; to ; grasp some. of . the simplest problems presented by the ground over which we walked. I shall- never forget the impatience with which he interrupted my endeavour to explain to ,him. some of the main causes. that are ; ; believed to determine the climate of our islands.; I -had alluded to the surface drift of warm Atlantic water from the south-west, and ;to the Gulf Stream, when he broke in with the exclamation, ' Gulf Stream! What in/ the world is that?'" .: .' ;.: ■-' :, i :

:"' The lecturer went, on to explain that while he was strongly in favour of assigning a more adequate place vi to the teaching of science in secondary:schools, he was strongly of opinion that the literary side, from its manifold human interest, ought to remain predominant in any wise system of education. <]'~; "No amount :of training in science," he said, "can compensate for. an inadequate training in literature. ;:'; It is ./to its literary education, that Britain owes the ; breed of trained public men '; who, through , the centuries, have built up her greatness, > and, •in my s opinion, nothing ought to" be done to injure the noble work which the literary side still carries on. But in the course of time men have come to -realise the interest and. importance of ; science '■, in : the . modern world, and to comprehend that there are faculties of the ' human ,mind which it - - is highly important to develop, but,which are comparatively little affected by a' literary training. . These faculties;, are best reached by the study of science. f Thus the combination of the two" sides, literary and scientific, provides a scheme of education which, in the present state of' our knowledge, is the most perfect that can be devised." . ; • ',"'

>f Sir Archibald went '■■' on 7 to sketch his ideal science master. In: doing.. so he pointed out that the - true educator, no matter in what branch of discipline he might be engaged, was not a man whose, chief aim it was to cram into the minds and memories of. his pupils' as ample a store of knowledge as these would hold, and whose success was -to ?be judged by the results of • competitive examinations. If this .were true on the"literary, it was no less true on the scientific : side. • And on the latter the 1 temptation to teach in that- unfruitful way \ was probably greater than on the former. The. lecturer said that he had known more than one teacher of science, possessing a wide acquaintance with his subject, yet quite incapable of making use of it as a stimulating " educational instrument. Full of details, they would pour them forth in wearisome iteration, without the guiding thread of logical sequence that would have linked them -. intelligibly and interestingly together. Men without any spark of living fire were hopelessly incompetent to elicit any spark of it in their listeners. ~ "In all the educational world," declared Sir Archibald. "I can think of no task more delightful to undertake than that of the science master. : At; the same time, there are few which demand so wide a range of qualification. .The science master must, of course, be thoroughly versed in his subject alike theoretically; and practically. He should,. if possible, be a man who has himself done some original- research. lam strongly of opinion r that his efficiency . will■• be I much augmented if he has had a good literary as well as " a scientific training. : When he enters'' on his teaching career ;he will soon find ; the great advantage of , a cultivated style; both in teaching and in writing. Unfortunately, some able men of science, who have neglected the literary side of their education, cannot arrange their thoughts in proper sequence or express them>;with' clearness and terseness. ; , I would urge the science master to keen : his hold -, on . literature, ancient as well as modern. : Many; a time when weary with his labours and discouraged, perhaps, by the difficulties j wherewith they are beset, -he; will find..; In that delightful field ample consolation and : refreshment. But above all, the science master must be thoroughly ,;. in love with his subject, and he ' must 5 possess the power of using some of his affection for it into his pupils," - h . > v ■ '»■' ■' ■ | '. •