Abstract
THOSE in touch with educational circles have been aware for some time past of a growing dissatisfaction with the scope and treatment of school science. The Report of the Committee of the British Association upon Science in School Certificate Examinations1 thus comes at an opportune moment, and will be welcomed by all who realize the difficulties of the present position. It is not an easy matter to probe to the root of the widespread feeling that all is not well with science in the schools, but at bottom there seems to be a conflict between utilitarian and aesthetic ideals. Many teachers, recognizing that the majority of their pupils will have to work hard for a living, feel that they must be given instruction of immediate practical value; others emphasize the importance of training young people to appreciate to the full the serene joys of the intellectual life. These two aims are not necessarily incompatible, and their reconciliation might be effected with reasonable ease, were not the situation rendered almost hopelessly rigid by the incubus of examinations.
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HOLMYARD, E. School Science. Nature 123, 861–863 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/123861a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/123861a0