“SHALL SCIENCE BE TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS OF WELLINGTON ?”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6688, 23 September 1882, Page 3

“SHALL SCIENCE BE TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS OF WELLINGTON ?”

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES* 3m, —With regard to “F.B.H/s ” statements on the above subject, I would reply that I have been through many of the factories he speaks of, and far from finding the number of Germans he alludes to, I have always noticed that the skilled workmen were English, carrying out Englishmen’s inventions in chemical dyes, potteries, &c. But this is off the question. Let me turn to his criticism of the New Zealand University, which, I believe, is doing a great deal of good in affording a stimulus to the boys in our “ Grammar Schools ” to prosecute their studies beyond the limit required for a commercial education. I will meet “ F.8.H.” on his own grounds. He complains that science,is allotted 1000 marks, whereas Latin has 1500.,t0 its credit, according to the New Zealand University Junior Scholarship, examination, and adds that “Science is the systematized knowledge of the world and all in it, the knowledge of ourselves and of our relation to the world around ns, the knowledge, if withdrawn, which would plunge us,” &o. The description, of coarse, is good—brilliant; but is it so? Doss “F.8.H.” for one moment imagine that Aristotle, Plato, Epicurus, Pythagoras, Lucretins, and hosts of others, except perhaps Mr Berber Spencer, would have been plunged into the Cimmerian darkness “as.great as that in which the Fijians live,” if it had not been for their training in natural science!? Nor is he just iu talking about “a knowledge of the grammatical forms of the Latin and Greek languages” as being what the New Zealand University gives a total of 2500 marks for. If be will study a little of what is required in the examination for. junior scbalorships he will be perhaps surprised to find that some Greeks and Romans are still able to teach os “ some knowledge of ourselves and our relation to the world around ns,” which' was not, and cannot be, gained, from either Atwood’s machine, the crucible, the parallelogram of forces, or the thermometer.. As tip “killing dead men” in combating the claims of scientific against classical training, let mp remark—and “F.8.H.” will forgive me the allusion to a Latin sentiment—“ Ne tutor ultra, crepidam,” which „ is, being , interpreted, let him be satisfied with killing, live men first. But, , seriously, if we dpsire to raise humanity to a height ; never before reached, if it is our aim to cast out the “evils under which we still groan,” were it not far humbler first to attempt to gain that high philosophical and intellectual citadel from which the philosophers of Athens still look down upon us, and modestly study even the " grammatical forms ” which will enable us in our poor way to comprehend that wisdom which taught them some knowledge of themselves and their relation to the world around them, before we abandon ourselves to a study that may teach us the chemical formula in the production of au aniline dye, or of the drug that is best qualified to cure the leprosy of the Hawaiians. Education haa for its chief object, I submit, not the acquirement of facts, bat the training that will render a young man’s mind capable of receiving and appreciating them. If the object of the New Zealand University is to achieve this, I must continue to approve its aim ; and if, at the same time, it admits “ science ” to the extent allowed, to my mind, it deserves still higher approbation.—l am &c., ■ : W. G. T. Wellington, 21st September.