Leisure-Time Studies; chiefly Biological; a Series of Essays and Lectures

Abstract

THIS volume of Essays and Addresses does not profess to contain anything new, either in the way of observation or theory. Neither is the author's style sufficiently brilliant, or his treatment of the subjects sufficiently original to raise them much above the level of the average lectures of a well-informed naturalist. They will, however, afford some useful and interesting information to the general reader, and may serve to attract attention to the question of the introduction of biology into ordinary education. This is the special subject of the first address, which, however, though somewhat lengthy and profuse, does not attempt to grapple with the difficulty of finding competent teachers of biology for all our schools. It is indeed suggested, that “the amount of knowledge required to pass even the primary stage of the biological subjects, in the government examinations, held under the auspices of the Science and Art Department,” should fit its possessor for imparting elementary instruction in biology. But we greatly doubt whether the examiners would be of this opinion; and we rather think it would be a distressing sight to witness a teacher, whose whole knowledge of the subject was derived from a course of study just sufficient to enable him to pass such an examination, exposed to the questions of a lot of intelligent country boys and girls, whose practical acquaintance with native plants and animals was far more extensive and accurate than his own. If biology is to be taught in schools it must not be by the regular school-teachers qualifying themselves by a few months' training in London, but by the employment of good naturalists to give lectures, demonstrations, and out-door excursions to all the schools of a district in succession.

Leisure-Time Studies; chiefly Biological; a Series of Essays and Lectures.

By Andrew Wilson, &c. With numerous Illustrations. (London: Chatto and Windus, 1879.)