Abstract
IT is, I believe, according to precedent, now that another year's work of the Science Classes here has been crowned by the award of prizes, that I should address you on some topic allied to the matters which have brought us together to-night. I need not search long for a subject, for the scientific education of those engaged in our national industries—upon the success or failure of which, in the struggle for existence, the welfare of our country so largely depends—is now one of the questions of the day. I propose, therefore, to lay before you some facts and figures bearing upon the education of our industrial classes, and I shall attempt to make what I have to say on that special point clearer, by touching upon some preliminary matters, which will show how it is that such a question as this has not been settled long ago; and further, that we can, if we wish, settle it now in the full light of the experience gained elsewhere, instead of wasting let us say a quarter of a century in costly experiments which may perhaps leave us in confusion more confounded. To begin, then, why is this question being discussed now? There is a great fact embodied in the most concrete fashion in the way in which our Government is now compelled to deal with our national education. Side by side of the Education Department by which our Minister controls in the main that book learning which has been given time out of mind, there has sprung up during the last thirty years another department—the Science and Art Department— by which he controls a new kind of national learning altogether. We have added to the old study of books a new study of things. This new learning was, we may say, only introduced in 1852, in which year the Queen in her speech on opening Parliament said: “The advancement of the fine arts and of practical science will be readily recognised by you as worthy the attention of a great and enlightened nation.” We have since found out that they are indeed worthy the attention of a great nation, and more than this, that no nation can be called enlightened whose citizens are not skilled in both; in fact, that they are to peace what cannon and swords are to war. But for a nation to foster them is one thing, to include them in a national scheme of education is another. Ought they to be so included? Let us see. What do we mean by education? Roughly speaking, we may say that there are two distinct schools of thought on this subject, although the existence of these two schools is not so generally recognised as it should be. According to one view, the human mind is an elastic bag into which facts are to be crammed for future use. A variation of the view is that the mind is inelastic, and then the stuffing process becomes more serious, and instead of depending upon a natural expansion, a process like that in use by the manufacturers of soda water is employed. It is not to be wondered at that the youthful mind likes neither of these methods; what ought to be a true delight becomes a real agony, and hence it is, as a Warwickshire man wrote many years ago—
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The Education of our Industrial Classes 1 . Nature 27, 248–253 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027248b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027248b0