Abstract
THERE are some points in the article on this subject in NATURE of July 9, which call for comment. The defects pointed out are not, I believe, due to the causes mentioned by your correspondent. The fault lies mainly in the public schools. The lower forms of public schools are, as a rule, mainly classical, the division into sides, classical, modern and science, only beginning when a boy has finished about half his school career. The choice of sides is chiefly left by the parents to the masters, and since in the lower forms these masters have, as a rule, little sympathy with any kind of work which is not purely classical, boys of ability are drafted as a matter of course into the classical side. The boys who enter the science side are often the failures of the classical side, and unless special care is taken by the science masters, even they are kept at classics until it is hopeless to make them into respectable science scholars. Naturally there are many exceptions; some clever boys have enlightened parents, and others, early developing a taste for scientific matters, persuade their parents to allow them to give up the dead languages. There are also some classical men who admit that other subjects than their own have educational value. But the rule is for the able boy to be kept at classics, while his less favoured brother is sent to science. I know that this is the case at the five public schools with whose working I am familiar, and I have little doubt that the science masters of other public schools have the same experience. Occasionally able boys are recruited from the modern side, and it is these boys who are practically shut out from Oxford. However small the knowledge of Greek required for passing responsions may seem to a classical man, it is no light matter for a boy who has it all to learn in little more than a year, and who has much other work to do during the time. At Cambridge the necessary knowledge of Greek is almost nominal, and it is a pity it is not abolished altogether. If both Universities would substitute a good knowledge of German—so necessary for every scientific student—for the very imperfect and quite useless modicum of Greek which they now require, it would result in a great saving of time to many science students, and ultimately in raising the science standard at both Universities.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
BAKER, H. The Position of Science at Oxford. Nature 54, 295 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/054295c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/054295c0
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.