Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-04-04
Huxley on Science In Education.

On the 10th of February, Professor Hux
ley distributed the prizes to the students Of
the Liverpool Institute, and made speech
on scientific education, Of which the Eng
Hsh Mechanic gives report. The following
portions of it will no doubt be welcome tc
many of our readers:
"Professor Huxley has long held that in
structon in physical science supplies infor
nation of peculiar value, because 1t is Of
a character that cannot be otherwise OBJ
tanned and that, as educational discipline
it supplies in better form than any other
study can supply peculiar kind Of logic
and peculiar method of testing the valid
ity of our process of inquiry. =
The value of science teaching as an item in
general cnlture is well expressed in paper
by Mr.. Worthington, one of the masters Of
Clifton school. whose words Professor Hux.
ley quoted. Mr.. Worthington says it is not
easy to exaggerate the Importance Of the
information impaired by certain branches
of science. 1t modfies the whole criticism
OF life made in maturer years not, be IL
noted, because boys have acquired knowl.
edge of facts by learning science, but be-
cause the latter has exercised an influence
as much moral as intellectual, which is
shown in an increased respect for precision
of statement, and for that form OF veracity
which consists in the acknowledgment OF
difficulties. 1t produces real effect to find
that nature cannot be imposed upon. The
student of science, it may be said, experiences
no difficulty in saying, | do not know, for
he has discovered that there are so many
matters beyond the ken of even the Oldest
and wisest of us that there can be no shame
even when the acknowledgment is made by
professor" The student of science, i!
he goes earnestly to work, must acquire
some knowledge of the right quality, and
the question is how to set young students to
work in the proper direction. As
to the time to be given to scientific educa
tion, that is the great difficulty at present
and il cannot be determined until it is
agreed what other subjects are absolutely
necessary. Professor Huxley, however, does
not avoid it, but boldly grapples with it, and
condemns the so-called Literary education u
which prevailed in the great majority Of
schools when he was boy. He does not
believe in the system which kept boys at
Greek and Latin for several years, learning
the grammar, constituting certain authors
and writing verses which, had they been
English verses, would have been condemned
as abominable doggerel. That kind of lit.
erary education was not literature at all
there is nothing in it which appeals to
the aesthetic faculties, and he asks all who
have reached his age to say whether
they had a conception of what art and litera
ture meant until they learnt for themselves,
after leaving school. If man cannot get
literary culture out of the Bible Chaucer
Shakespeare, Milton, Hobbies, and Berke
ley, not to mention others, then, in Profes.
sor Huxley's opinion, he cannot get it any.
where. He would, therefore, devote large
portion of the time OF every child to a study
of the models of English writing; and, il
possible, he would add Latin and German
Drawing Professor Huxley considers an es.
sential element of every child's education
because it gives the means of training at
tention and accuracy,-two things in which
mankind are more deficient than in any
other mental quality whatever. He repu.
dates the idea that some people cannot
draw, for, as he points out, writing is a
form Of drawing, and there is no one who
cannot be taught to draw in the way he
means, though it is impossible to make ar.
fists. Then he would have every child
taught some art, the elements of morals and
of political and social life and beyond all
that, let each take his special line. 1t is
thus not question whether one order OF
study should predominate, but what topics
shall be selected in order to combine all the
needful elements of education in such pro
portion as to give the mind the greatest
food and the greatest support and encour
| agement in those faculties which enable us
to appreciate truth, and to enjoy those
sources of innocent happiness which are
o. en- to u.s. while avoiding the pitfalls which
beset those who break either the natural OIL
moral law. Knowledge, from Professor Hux
ley's point of view, is divisible into two
groups,-matters of science and matters Of
art for all things movable belong to the
province of the former, and all things feel
able TO the province of art,-the aesthetic
province. Thus the business of education
is to provide the young, in the first place
with the means and habit of observation
and Of procuring information and sec
ondly, to supply the subject matter eithel
in the shape of science, or in the shape oi
art, or of both combined. And that /,
scientific education in its widest and bes
sense for the object is not 80 much to Gran
the memory with rules and facts, excep
tion and hypotheses, az to train the facul
ties of the young so that they will receiv,
that development which will enable then
to be happy and useful in their generation
and to furnish them with all that is mos
important in the capitalized experience o
the human race, which is true knowledge"