Abstract
MR. HEWITT has probably had a better chance than any other teacher of knowing by experience the working of the meagre science-subjects of the new educational code. The defects of that code, and particularly of its directions as to the subject of mechanics, are very great; nevertheless the little book which Mr. Hewitt has produced shows how, in spite of the disadvantageous system under which he works, a really good teacher will succeed in working up the subject for his pupils. We have seldom met with a really elementary book which at once combined to so great a degree simplicity of language, accuracy of description, and sound science. Mr. Hewitt states as his experience that the main difficulty has hitherto been to get the children to express in anything like precise language the ideas suggested to their minds by the simple experiments shown them. He therefore intended this little work to serve as a lesson-book to be read by the pupils in the intervals between the experimental lessons. This first part covers the ground prescribed by Schedule IV. for the first stage. A second part, dealing with “Force,” is in preparation, and will embrace the subjects of the second and third stages. We hope. Mr. Hewitt's second part will prove as satisfactory as is his first instalment. His aims are limited, indeed, by the requirements of the Code, but within those narrow limits his success is great.
Class-Book of Elementary Mechanics, adapted to the Requirements of the New Code.
Part I. Matter. By Wm. Hewitt, Science Demonstrator for the Liverpool School Board. (London: George Philip and Son, 1880.)
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Class-Book of Elementary Mechanics, adapted to the Requirements of the New Code . Nature 23, 53 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/023053a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023053a0