Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/521

Rh mental needs of children, and the adaptation of objective studies to their early cultivation. They would therefore begin with physics and chemistry when boys and girls are old enough to commence simple experimenting; that is, at perhaps the age of twelve or thirteen. Mr. Wyles, of Allesley Park College, claims to have had the best success with chemical and physical experiments and the use of the microscope, and he embodies his views and results in the following instructive passage:

But there are others who insist that scientific studies may and should begin much earlier, and their view must be adopted before society can ever reach the solid and lasting advantages which are to be gained by scientific education. It is the teachers of natural history that favor this view, maintaining that the collection, observation, and comparison of plants, insects, shells, etc., may be made highly instructive at a period when chemical and physical experiments may not be undertaken. The Rev. George Henslow takes this decided position, and, in replying to Mr. Wilson, of Rugby, in Nature, of April 20th, he has the following remarks:

"Before twelve, I agree with Mr. Wilson, that practical chemistry should not begin. But, Mr. Wilson says, 'Science should be introduced into a school, beginning at the top and going downward gradually to a point which will be indicated by experience.' Surely this is inverting a fundamental principle of education, and we may ask, Why should science be thus singled out? Why not begin at the top with Latin and arithmetic and work downward? Science, however, has its 'elements' and its 'advanced' stages, like everything else. The soundest method seems to me to select the science for each age or capacity of pupils, and for the teacher himself to adapt the branch selected to them. Let him begin with botany—with children of the age of six, if he pleases—and by using the schedule he will find it almost self-adapting to the child's powers. Physical geography might, come next, with pupils from eight to twelve; then the experimental sciences or geology from twelve upward. The observing of the