Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/264

250 methods of scientific instruction are urgently in need of reform. It remains to show that the practice of crowding so many different sciences into the brief period of school life is causing serious injury, not only to the sciences themselves but to education as a whole. This injury is especially due to the practice, which is part and parcel of the present system, of introducing scientific studies into the work of each one of the seven or eight years of school education, Nearly as much time is now devoted to science in the early years of school life as in the later, and before any real improvement can take place in scientific instruction the impression at present obtaining, that the earlier physical science is made a part of school education the better, must undergo some modification. This idea is based on the fact, which is a matter of common observation, that young children display great curiosity in regard to natural phenomena, and derive much pleasure from information in response to their questions concerning causes and results. But while this constitutes an excellent reason for encouraging the spontaneous activity of childish minds in the direction of Nature's laws, it hardly affords adequate ground for incorporating systematic scientific instruction into the routine work of their early years. It seems to be pretty generally agreed that the object of school education is to train the intellect to act readily as the servant of the will in that life-work whose honorable fulfillment is the aim of all education, and to store the mind with knowledge on the many subjects where ignorance would be prejudicial to success in that life-work. Now, the first of these objects is not likely to be furthered by allowing the studies most agreeable to a pupil to take precedence of others which require more effort, and therefore constitute a better mental training. There is a great deal of sound common sense in the old nursery rhyme which tells us:

 The twelve Miss Pelicoes, you plainly see, were taught To do the things they did not like, which means the things they ought."

To be taught to do the things we do not like is a very important element in our education, especially in the education of our early years, for if that part of our training is neglected then, it can never be really made up to us, and we are at a disadvantage in adult life as regards the habit of self-restraint which constitutes the best basis for ultimate success. I do not apologize for obtruding what may appear a truism, for the neglect of the vital principle it contains is fast becoming a crying evil in the education of young children. As regards the second object of education, that of informing the mind, it can only be achieved by prolonged and vigorous exertion in the acquirement of many kinds of knowledge besides that of natural science; which knowledge, while it may be less interesting to a young