NOTE.
Natural Science is so placed in the fore-front of the studies of the present age that no apology is needed for pressing it upon the schools. To object to this pursuit is simply to write oneself a laggard behind the times. We can do little that is better for our children than to teach them that the world is law-full to the core.
Two methods of study are ardently advocated by those who instruct in natural science. The one demands practical personal investigation,—nothing but investigation,—deprecates the use of text-books, and insists upon the object only. Another, perhaps a lazier fashion, is to ignore the object and relegate the pupil only to the text-books.
Butin medio tutissimus ibisholds here. The child should indeed observe, and, if it can, discover; but let us by no means deprive it of the inheritance of the ages.
Why should we set the fortunate child of the nineteenth century in the condition of the child of the first or fourteenth centuries? Let us give the pupil the benefit of the best that has been discovered and detailed.
And what benefit shall he derive from such study? Let us quote from the Report of the British Royal Education Committee: “If the object of education is the fitting of pupils for those duties they will be called on to perform, then instruction in science is second only in importance to instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic. No subject is better calculated to awaken the interest and intelligence of pupils than the study of Natural Science.”