Science in Secondary Schools

Abstract

SOCIAL organization is passing through a dynamic era. To-day the rate of change is higher, and, what is more important, we are more aware of it. For this reason the Spens report* is to be welcomed as a compendium of suggestions for meeting these changes, and above all as a clear statement that the duty of citizenship in a democracy renders it essential that all should be taught to understand and to think to the best of their ability. The report, the general trends of which were outlined in NATURE of January 21, p. 103, though of far-reaching importance, is perhaps not so revolutionary as was expected, which is all to the good; for revolutionary changes, especially in such a highly organized system as that of education, would only result in confusion and counter-revolution. There is, after all, only a difference of degree between the pronouncements of Arnold and Sanderson, and those of such present-day educationists as Sir Richard Gregory, who once defined education as “the deliberate adjustment of a growing human organism to its environment”. Furthermore, several of even the more important suggestions set forth in the Spens report are not new, but have-already been made by other authoritative bodies. This illustrates the broad outlook and the democratic spirit adopted by the Spens Committee and the large body of witnesses which helped it in its deliberations.