Biology v Botany

Abstract

ACCORDING to the regulations of the Cambridge Local Examinations, 1883, junior students can alone take botany, while senior students must take elementary biology instead. What has been the result? Taking the Regent's Park centre as a typical example, for it is a single school of several hundred girls, and sends up probably more than any other school in England, we find that from 1872 to 1882, inclusive, 273 senior students entered, and 191, or 70 per cent, passed in botany. In 1883, however, none were sent up at all. If we ask, What is the object of teaching science in schools? the answer is obviously for its educational value. Now this can only be acquired by practical study. Botany is eminently qualified for affording this use, whereas zoology is not. The lady principal of the school in question will not entertain the idea of teaching any branch of science if it cannot be taught practically, and very pertinently asks, “How can I get two to three hundred frogs, and make my girls dissect them? In the first place, the parents would not allow it.” Consequently biology becomes a dead letter, and botany is discountenanced by the Syndicate for the elder girls.