Abstract
MR. LUCAS in his original pamphlet is emphatic that his proposed syllabus is for sixth-form boys specializing in classics, history, mathematics : in fact, in anything other than natural science. Now in the third paragraph of his letter above, he says that if these boys have "not done any practical biology at an earlier stage ⃛it is useless to start here". I can only take this to mean that unless these arts students have done some elementary biology in their earlier years at school and so done some practical biology, his syllabus for the course of study at the sixth-form level is useless. Is he assuming, therefore, that in these enlightened days all boys, whatever subject they may ultimately specialize in, have had a groundwork in the elements of biology in their early school days ? This may be so at Winchester ; but does he not know that, in the greater number of secondary grammar schools in which biology is taught at all, it is only taught on the science side, and in many of these schools is only dealt with in the sixth form ? His pamphlet, as I pointed out, "purports to deal with the way in which biology and social biology at that can be introduced to a sixth form who have done no biology before"—not the sixth form of any particular school but presumably at any secondary grammar school. That is the way in which I maintain his pamphlet will be interpreted and that is why I criticize it.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
CANNON, H. [Letters to Editor]. Nature 163, 847 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163847a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163847a0
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.