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inces similar to

parish as unit,

but since 1859

Council of

Public In

struction

The Ontario system may be considered typical of the educational administration in the various provinces of Canada, except Quebec. Every other province has Other provsought uniformity of school provision and educational Ontario. standards through government control, although none of them grant their central official quite as much power as Ontario. Alberta and Saskatchewan likewise permit 'separate schools,' and they existed in Manitoba until 1890. But the type of control in Quebec is very different from that of the other provinces. There in 1845 the In Quebec parish was by law made the unit of school administration. But seven years later government inspectors were established, and in 1859 a central organization was completed with a Council of Public Instruction. This authority is composed of two divisions, a Roman Catholic and a Protestant, which sit separately and administer the schools of their respective creeds. The provincial super- and superinintendent of schools, appointed by the lieutenant gover- schools. nor, is ex officio chairman of both divisions, but he can vote only with the division to which he belongs by religion. Each division makes regulations for the instruction and tests of its own schools, and appoints inspectors School support. of its own faith. The proceeds from the general public school fund or from any educational legacies are divided in proportion to the Catholic and Protestant inhabitants, but the regular school rate may be assigned to whichever of the two school systems the taxpayer wishes.

tendent of

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Graves, In Modern Times (Macmillan, 1913), chap. IX; Parker, Modern Elementary Education (Ginn, 1912), chaps. X and XI. The following works throw light upon various phases of the respective

countries: Nohle, E., History of the German School System (Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1897-1898; vol. I, pp. 2644); Paulsen, F., German Education (Scribner, 1908); Russell, J. E., German Higher Schools (Longmans, Green, 1896); Paulsen, F., The German Universities (Macmillan, 1895; Scribner, 1906); Kandel, I. L., The Training of Elementary School Teachers in Germany (Columbia University, Teachers College Contributions, No. 31, 1910); Brown, J. F., The Training of Teachers for Secondary Schools in Germany (Macmillan, 1911); Beard, Mary S., Écoles maternelles of Paris (Great Britain, Board of Education, Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. VIII, no. 8); Farrington, F. E., French Secondary Schools (Longmans, Green, 1910) and The Public Primary System of France (Columbia University, Teachers College Contributions to Education, no. 7, 1906); Smith, Anna T., Education in France (Reports of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1890 to 1914, see tables of contents); Greenough, J. C., The Evolution of the Elementary Schools of Great Britain (Appleton, 1903); Montmorency, J. E. G. de, State Intervention in English Education (Macmillan, 1903); Sharpless, I., English Education in Elementary and Secondary Schools (Appleton, 1892); Smith, Anna T., Education in England (Monroe Cyclopædia of Education, vol. II); Sandiford, P., The Training of Teachers in England and Wales (Columbia University, Teachers College Contributions, no. 32, 1910); Coleman, H. T. J., Public Education in Upper Canada (Columbia University, Teachers College Contributions, no. 15, 1909); Ross, G. W., The School System of Ontario (Appleton, 1896); Smith, Anna T., Education in Canada (Monroe Cyclopædia of Education, vol. I).

CHAPTER XXVI

THE SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT AND THE CURRICULUM

OUTLINE

During the past two centuries a great growth has taken place in the natural sciences. For a long time this development affected practical life very little, but during the nineteenth century the application of science to industrial problems has resulted in a host of inventions.

Because of the importance of the sciences to life, Spencer and others have urged the inclusion of them in the curricula of schools and colleges. While the content of the sciences has furnished the chief argument for this, many scientists have urged their value as formal discipline.

Instruction in the sciences has gradually been included in the higher, secondary, and elementary institutions of Germany, France, England, and the United States.

This marked scientific movement is allied with the psychological tendency in its improvement of method, and with the sociological in its emphasis upon human welfare.

The Development of the Natural Sciences in Modern Times. We have already (chapter XV) witnessed the growth of the natural sciences and the beginning of their introduction into the curriculum toward the close of the seventeenth century. This tendency was also greatly stimulated by Rousseau, who, we have seen (pp. 218222), may be held to advocate the scientific, as well as achievements during past the sociological and psychological movements. And dur- two centuries.

Remarkable

Hutton,
Agassiz,
Darwin, and
others.

ing the past two centuries this development has become most rapid and extensive. The desire for scientific investigation steadily grew throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries until its ideals, methods, and results became patent in every department of human knowledge. The strongholds of ignorance, superstition, and prejudice were rapidly stormed and taken through new discoveries or new marshallings of facts already discovered. But evident as this movement has been, it is scarcely possible here even to mention the more important scientific achievements, or to outline the broad sweep of progress in astronomy, geology, biology, physiology, chemistry, physics, and other sciences within a century. The Newtonian theory has been confirmed by the investigations of Lagrange and Laplace and by the discovery of Neptune by mathematical reasoning from the effects of its gravitation. Hutton's 'Plutonic' theory of continents and Agassiz's hypothesis of a universal ice-age have been formulated; the doctrine of evolution of Darwin (Fig. 51) and Mendel's law of inheritance have been established; Liebig and others have thrown light upon the process of digestion and the functioning of the lungs and liver; atoms, molecules, and ions have been defined; Joule and Mayer have demonstrated the conservation of energy; and the periodic law of chemical elements has been discovered by Newlands.

The Growth of Inventions and Discoveries in the Nineteenth Century.-It should be noted, however, that the majority of these investigations were for a long time carried on outside the universities, and, owing to the almost proverbial conservatism of educational institutions, the natural sciences scarcely entered the course

teenth century

of study anywhere. In fact, these great discoveries at first seem not to have affected practical life in any direction. Huxley tells us that in the eighteenth century "weaving and spinning were carried on with the old appliances; nobody could travel faster by sea or by land than at any previous time in the world's history, and King George could send a message from London to York no faster than King John might have done." But a little later, as he adds, "that growth of knowledge beyond imaginable utilitarian ends, which is the condition precedent of its practical utility, began to produce During ninesome effect upon practical life." The nineteenth century science applied will, on this account, always be known for its development of inventions and the arts, as well as of pure science. During this period science rapidly grew and took the labor, transform of applications to the problems of labor, production, communicatransportation, communication, hygiene, and sanitation. tion, comfort, The reaper, the sewing machine, the printing press, and the typewriter greatly reduced the cost of labor; the steamboat, locomotive, electric railway, telegraph, and telephone linked all parts of the world together; anthracite, friction matches, petroleum, and electric lighting and heating greatly enlarged the comforts of life; and stethoscopes, anæsthetics, antiseptics, and antitoxines added wonderfully to the span of human life.

Herbert Spencer and What Knowledge is of Most Worth. Because of these practical results, the vital importance of a knowledge of natural phenomena to human welfare and social progress was more and more felt throughout the century. It gradually became evident that the natural sciences were demanded by modern life and constituted elements of the greatest value in

to problems of

portation,

and hygiene.

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