Science education

“ The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips, learns a higher lesson than the ‘print-books’ can teach. Years hence, when the children are old enough to understand that science itself is in a sense sacred and demands some sacrifices, all the ‘common information’ they have been gathering until then, and the habits of observation they have acquired, will form a capital groundwork for a scientific education. ”

“ We have come to the conclusion that this form of education is a mistaken and injurious one. We desire to make the chief subject of education both in school and in college a knowledge of nature as set forth in the sciences which are spoken of as physics, chemistry, geology and biology. We think that all education should consist in the first place of this kind of knowledge, on account of its commanding importance both to the individual and to the community. ”

“ If I insist unweariedly, nay fanatically, upon the importance of physical science as an educational agent, it is because the study of any branch of science, if properly conducted, appears to me to fill up a void left by all other means of education. ”

“ The obvious pedagogical starting point of scientific instruction is not to teach things labeled science, but to utilize the familiar occupations and appliances to direct observation and experiment, until pupils have arrived at a knowledge of some fundamental principles by understanding them in their familiar practical workings. ”

“ I need not enumerate the various branches of Natural History, suffice it to say, that I would have a system of education that should embrace the whole successively; and here a wide field would be open for the conversion of priests to professors in the various departments of this science; and this science alone is so far infinite as to make the life of man a continual system of education and research. Independent of the foregoing sciences there are Geography, Astronomy, Mechanics, and all the lesser branches which are commonly and necessarily taught to youth in the present system of education. ”

“ Physical science will have its great divisions of physical geography, with geology and astronomy; physics; chemistry and biology; represented not merely by professors and their lectures, but by laboratories, in which the students, under guidance of demonstrators, will work out facts for themselves and come into that direct contact with reality which constitutes the fundamental distinction of scientific education. Mathematics will soar into its highest regions; while the high peaks of philosophy may be scaled by those whose aptitude for abstract thought has been awakened by elementary logic. ”

“ We refuse to accept this imposition wherever it would force us to sacrifice understanding to professional rote and rule of thumb. In place of these we emphasize basic concepts, basic techniques of measurement and experimentation, and general skills of the laboratory, in short those starting-points which make the rapid acquisition and revision of scientific knowledge a matter of habit and second nature. In terms of this fundamental training, our work in natural science more than meets the genuine requirements of pre-professional education. ”

“ It was thought that the temper of the really scientific man, so patient in research, so accurate and conscientious, so slow to dogmatize, so deferential to others, might be fostered by experimental science in the schools, acquiring "knowledge at first hand," making experiments, looking with great respect at balances, weighing and measuring, and giving an account of results. ”

“ The great and important development of scientific instruction, however, since about 1860, has been in the fields of advanced applied science or technical education, and has taken place chiefly in new and higher specialized schools and research foundations. The fields in which the greatest scientific advances have been made, and to which we shall here briefly refer, have been engineering, agriculture, and medicine. ”

“ It is proposed to make the training in natural science the main part of education, for the great majority of mankind at any rate. And here, I confess, I part company with the friends of physical science, with whom up to this point I have been agreeing. ”

“ What is the use, it is said, of attempting to make physical science a branch of primary education? Is it not probable that teachers, in pursuing such studies, will be led astray from the acquirement of more important but less attractive knowledge? And, even if they can learn something of science without prejudice to their usefulness, what is the good of their attempting to instil that knowledge into boys whose real business is the acquisition of reading, writing, and arithmetic? ”

“ As science instruction has become organized, and a knowledge of the principles of science has become diffused, object lessons, Realien, nature study, or elementary science instruction has very generally been put into the elementary or people's schools for the younger pupils. As a result, young people finishing the elementary schools to-day know more relating to the laws of the universe, and the applications of these laws to human life and industry, than did distinguished scholars two centuries ago. ”

“ For surely if a scientific education is to be more than a narrow and technical specialty, and is to exert a ‘liberalizing’ and broadening effect on the mind, it ought to include a study of scientific method in its generality and a certain understanding of the intellectual instruments by which all others are operated and constructed. ”

“ Be this as it may, no one to-day denies that much remains to be done to spread a sense of the value of science for those branches of industry to which (as especially to agriculture) it has been imperfectly applied, to strengthen and develop the teaching of scientific theory as the foundation of technical and practical scientific work, and above all to equip with the largest measure of knowledge and by the most stimulating training those on whom nature has bestowed the most vigorous and flexible minds. ”

“ Chemistry and Physics were allowed a limited space in the college curriculum as branches of useful knowledge, but were regarded as wholly subordinate to the classics and mathematics as a means of education; and as physical science was then taught, there can be no question that the accepted opinion was correct. Experimental science can never be [Pg v] made of value as a means of education unless taught by its own methods, with the one great aim in view to train the faculties of the mind so as to enable the educated man to read the Book of Nature for himself. ”

“ But then I see no reason, why, in secondary schools, and in the Science Classes which are under the control of the Science and Art Department--and which I may say, in passing, have in my judgment, done so very much for the diffusion of a knowledge of science over the country--we should not hope to see instruction in the elements of Biology carried out, not perhaps to the same extent, but still upon somewhat the same principle as here. ”

“ Listening to lectures, witnessing experiments, and reciting from textbooks, is not that "immediate contact with Nature herself" which rational education now demands. And what is true of the Primers of Chemistry and Physics in this series is equally true of the Primers of Geology, Botany, Astronomy, Logic, and Political Economy. They are all lesson-books of fundamental principles, clear and admirable as expositions, but all of them as much second-hand book-knowledge as the "Primers of History." ”

“ Enough of the experimental work should be given in the elementary course to enable students to distinguish between mere opinion and well-established theory, to understand how the theories have been derived, to know how to subject them to crucial tests, and to give them some knowledge of methods of experimentation.
Education as a science is constantly confronted by the questions, "What are the ends and aims of education?" ”

“ Taken in the aggregate, however, the body of information at hand regarding schools is so great that we are justified in speaking of a science of education. Furthermore, the use of the term “science” would be justified even if we were in possession of fewer solutions of school problems than we now have, for the essence of science is its method of investigation, not its ability to lay down a body of final rules of action. ”

“ Under present conditions, all activity, to be successful, has to be directed somewhere and somehow by the scientific expert—it is a case of applied science. This connection should determine its place in education. It is not only that the occupations, the so-called manual or industrial work in the school, give the opportunity for the introduction of science which illuminates them, which makes them material, freighted with meaning, instead of being mere devices of hand and eye ”

“ The most important work of to-day is to collect, reconcile, and apply all the principles and methods of education that have been discovered in the past, into one science and art of teaching. This would certainly radically change all our school work in this country. When [206] this is done the ground will be made ready for new advances in the incomplete science of education. Because a complete science has not yet been discovered is a very poor reason for not applying what we already know. ”

“ The enthusiasm for the method is as impressive as its youth. It would be impossible to turn the present generation of science teachers away from the laboratory method of teaching. In spite of its cumbersomeness of234 administration, its demand for expensive equipment, and the deliberation which it compels in teaching the results of science, the laboratory method is everywhere accepted as the true method. ”

“ The education of the senses, which is thus requisite in order to understand well the terminology of any science, must be acquired by an inspection of the objects which the science deals with; and is, perhaps, best promoted by the practical study of Natural History. In the different departments of Natural History, the descriptions of species are given by means of an extensive technical terminology: and that education of which we now speak, ought to produce the effect of making the observer as familiar with each of the terms of this terminology as we are with the words of our common language. ”

“ During recent years the demand for a thorough and comprehensive study of schools by scientific methods has led to a number of investigations which can be offered as an optimistic beginning of a science of education. It would, indeed, be far beyond the truth to assert that science has settled all the problems of teaching and of school organization. ”

“ It may be turned to any one of a hundred tasks which offer themselves to us men here on earth. It may have gained this discipline in one particular science or another, and it may have special technical acquaintance with one more than another. Such will almost surely be the case, but there is not a more mistaken, one-sided, and mischievous controversy than that about the science which should be made the basis of education. Every science has, for disciplinary purposes, its advantages and its limitations. ”

“ As a protest against a too narrow view of natural history, biology attracted a large number of advocates in this country, who hoped that the new, or, if you please, the newly named science, would not only enlarge the views of professional and amateur naturalists, but would also furnish a valuable aid in the education of the young. It is not my purpose to speak of the changed aspect of professional and expert studies, viewed from a biological stand-point, but merely to consider the effect which has been produced on elementary instruction in colleges and schools. ”

“ It is almost impossible for any of us to escape some amount of scientific education at school, at college, from lectures, or from books. Certainly those of us who have a natural inclination towards knowledge of that kind can hardly fail to have the opportunity of acquiring it. Every library abounds in elementary and advanced scientific books; every university and many schools have their lectures and laboratories for science, and there is scientific teaching involved in every educational curriculum. ”

“ Under the better system of the various institutions for scientific and industrial education, the student passes frequently from study about things to study of the things themselves, in laboratory or workshop, in draughting-room or museum, or in the field. Every science must now have its laboratory practice, and thereby are given to lectures and recitations reality and interest. ”

“ Every one knows that many teachers are unskilled to present in the elementary schools the beginnings of geometry, science, history, or literature, and that the failures in this work are due to the mechanical efforts of those who have had no higher or special [Pg 61] training. The demands of present methods are imperative for improved power in instruction. Science is not well taught in all schools. There is a school which teaches biology from a manual without specimen, microscope, or illustrations. ”

“ Whether for this, or for some better reason, the founders of the schools of the Middle Ages included astronomy, along with geometry, arithmetic, and music, as one of the four branches of advanced education; and, in this respect, it is only just to them to observe that they were far in advance of those who sit in their seats. ”