Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1885. Science Teaching in Schools.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1767, 4 December 1885, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1885. Science Teaching in Schools.

Fon a little time past we bare been publish' iug reports of the lectures delivered by Mr Purdie on “ science subjects ” for the benefit of the teachers in country schools. There is very little that is new in those lectures, still, the information given in these lectures is of much practical value. It is certainly a good tiling that the boys and girls attending the State Schools should learn what is the composition of the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the food they eat. Such knowledge will help them to an intelligent understanding of the laws of health. All scientific teaching of a practical kind is valuable-far more bo indeed thau the cramming of Latin and Greek which prevailed in the past in the High Schools of England and Scotland. In this colony the necessity of scientific teaching and technical education in the State Schools is now becoming more fully recognised. The Premier, Mr Stout, Has done good service in promoting technical education, and year by year, this subject will have more attention devoted to it. In England there has also been action taken in the same direction. There has been a great increase of scientific teaching in its Universities and Public Schools. Technical colleges have been established in the chief cities of the United Kingdom to initiate youths into the mysteries of art manufactures. A new scientific University has come into existence at Manchester. Certainly, Government laboratories have not been established by the State in England, as is the case in Germany, * but then, on the other hand, there iv-e many

private institutions where chemistry a nd other branches of science are taught by thou.ugh'y competeut professors. In this matter of scientific teaching and technical education, ; England lelies much more on private initiative than is the case in Germany, and the plan has answered not badly as regards jn trade and eminence in art and science. In order to give adequate scope to scientific teaching in the English public schools, \\v notice’ that Sir Lyon Playfair lately proposed to do away with a good deal of the instruction in Greek and Latin which has hitherto occupied a very prominent place. This is a perfectly fair proposal on the part of scientific men, who have already been able to effect a considerable reform in the direction of their own wishes. It is due to their efforts that in most oi the great public schools in England, science is now taught to all boys whose parents desire it, and well equipped laboratories have also been provided, where a knowledge of practical chemistry and obemi--cal manipulation ” can be acquired. At the

I“ie meeting of the British Association held at Aber.i-'ea, we gather from the lingllah papers that the Pu'-«dent, Sir Lyon Plat fair, expressed ilic opinion that 2!-. di more should im ilonn in the direction of scientific te.l;’-buig. ih-oi'i-seoi' Huxley entertained a similar view and claimed that for all boys net less than a;-; hours every week should be devoted to in,-tnictio:i in Pf.f-'.ee ; while Sir Lyon Way. fair would have nine time given to this nihj'ct in the siu tiler grammar schools than

in the great public schools of the kingdom, because the later me the "gymnasia of the upper class*s," who can afford the luxuries of classical and Ihsrary culture, whorea’tbe sous of middle class parents really require Bciance to fit them for their callings in life. It cannot be doubted that a preliminary theo: circa! training will be of great value to the youths in this colony who will afterwards he engaged in trades and those manufactures '“hich every year are becoming morenumerous, 'i'iitit die practically no private institutions in the colony for affording such instruction and it is therefore the duty of tbs Govern-

ment to supply the want. Fortunately, Mr Stout, the Premier, holds this view and ia acting upon it. Already there has been a beginning made in the direction of scientific teaching and technical education 'in the State Schools and every year further progress will be made. Teaching Latin and Greek and affording a high degree of literary culture is all very well; but to the vast majority of boys who have to make their living, and raise themselves in the world, the dead languages we of little practical use. Itisr’. absurd

fco cram some boys witli Greek and Latin, which, to quota the words of Milton, are to them even “ life thorns and thistles.” History, mathemaios, scientific teaching, and technical educaton will prove far more useful both as intelleoual training and a practical preparation foi the real work of life than Livy and Latin verses. Technical education is a good prepa:ation for apprenticeship and the workshop,'md the boy who has received such inatruotioi will understand the practical teachings in lis trade all the better and quicker from tin knowledge he had previously acquired.