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Although as early as 1836 a grant of £1500 was made by the Government towards the establishment of a School of Design, it was not till after the Exhibition of 1851 that any systematic aid was given to the teaching of Science and Art. In a speech from the Throne at the opening of Parliament, November 1852, reference was made to "The advancement of the fine arts and of practical Science," and to a comprehensive scheme for the promotion of those objects, which resulted, as already stated, in the establishment in 1853 of the Department of Science and Art under the control of the Board of Trade. It remained under the Board of Trade till 1856, when it was transferred to the newly formed Education Department. In 1859 a system of grants in aid of Science and Art classes applicable to the whole country was approved; and, with some important changes, the system has remained in force until the present day.

The Department owed its existence to the early recognition of the fact, that manufacturing industry was destined to be more and more dependent upon the application of the discoveries of science and of scientific method to the processes of production. This fact was brought home to the minds of intelligent observers by the variety of products of different intries shown at the first Exhibition. What most struck manufacturers was the absence of beauty and design which ised the products of British industry, and from that e the belief in the saving influence of science and

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encourage, without reference to any organised system of instruction, a general knowledge of elementary scientific facts. A machinery was created, unknown in the educational system of any other country, for catching here and there a stray genius. It was described by Huxley as a "capacity-catching machine." It was cumbrous in its operations, and whilst it impeded the healthy growth of primary instruction, it helped by the very grants it distributed to postpone the organisation of a sound system of secondary education. Moreover, it left to voluntary effort the building up of a national scheme of distinctly technical instruction. There was, too, a detachment about the work, which is shown in its failure to recognise Literature and Language equally with Science and Art as a part of a liberal education whether primary or secondary. Through its Museums and its Art Schools the Department has undoubtedly helped industry; but looking back through the last fifty years, and comparing educational progress here and abroad, one cannot fail to be struck rather with what might have been than with what has already been accomplished. During the forty-seven years of the Department's existence, the outlook has never been so promising as now, when the Unity of Education has come to be recognised, and the organisation of its different branches under one. Central authority is likely to be effected.

The dependence of industrial upon elementary education is so intimate that before referring to the causes which led to the establishment of technical schools in all parts of the country, some mention must be made of the great Educational Act, which will be for ever associated with the name of W. E. Forster. The year 1870 is a landmark. if the history of Education in this country. Prior to 1870 although State Aid was given to a large number of elementary schools, primary education was almost entirely dependent upor voluntary effort. Forster's, Act brought education within reach of every child in the land. The most remarkable feature perhaps in the

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history of primary education in this country is the parallel development of our Board and Voluntary school systems. No more striking instance can be adduced of the practical good sense of the British people, and of the wisdom of the statesmen who guide the policy of the nation, than the fact that these two systems have continued to exist and to develop side by side,-.. a result which goes far to explain the absence in this country of that acute phase of the religious difficulty, which has caused so much political disturbance in other countries, where the one system or the other has been wholly suppressed.

To the Act of 1870 the industrial progress of the Nation during the last thirty years is largely due. Except on the foundations of elementary education no system of technical instruction can possibly be reared. The first generation of scholars had scarcely left the newly organised Board schools before it was discovered that the science classes of South Kensington failed to give that specialised teaching which our young artisans required. Something more, and something other than the instruction so provided was needed. And not only among the artisan population, but to an equal if not to a greater extent among those who were to become the leaders of industrial works, the want of a new kind of education was beginning to be felt. During the early years of the last quarter of our century a further advance' was made in scientific discovery. The possibilities of Electricity began to be realised, and the influence of well-directed chemical research in the building up of new industries abroad was recognised by some of the most far-seeing of our scientific men. The agitation that precedes a renascence had begun. There was a feeling of uneasiness as to the value of the education given in our Board schools, in our secondary schools and Universities, and doubts were -expressed as to whether it was as well adapted as it might be to the changed and changing needs of industrial life. Huxley and: Arnold, both Government officers, realised the urgent necessity of a change and an advance, and each in his own

way cried aloud and spared not. The examination system as then conducted was not conducive to sound education. Whilst pleading for scientific instruction Huxley saw that much of what was called science teaching was practically useless. "If scientific education is to be dealt with as mere book work, it will be better not to attempt it." "If scientific training is to yield its most eminent results it must I repeat be made practical." "I want to see instruction in Elementary Science and in Art more thoroughly incorporated in the educational system." "At present it is being administered by driblets, as if it were a patent medicine, 'a few drops to be taken occasionally in a tea-spoon"." These are a few of the wailings of Huxley scattered through his numerous speeches and addresses. In one of his Essays he says: "I am strongly inclined to agree with some learned schoolmasters who say that in their experience the teaching of Science is all waste of time. As they teach it I have no doubt it is, but to teach it otherwise requires an amount of personal labour and a development of means and appliances which must strike horror and dismay into a man accustomed to mere book work'." Since these words were written the teaching has improved, but further changes are still needed to make the Science of our secondary schools a fuller preparation for professional and industrial life. Arnold's criticism of our methods was equally to the point. No one realised more fully than he the radical defects of our educational system. "The idea of Science," he tells us, "and scientific knowledge is wanting to our whole instruction alike," and Arnold used the term Science in its wider and more correct sense, not as mere information about the laws and facts of Nature. Huxley and Arnold approached the problem from different points of view, but in each was found that energising spirit of unrest to which we largely owe the educational advances of the last twenty years.

1 Science and Education. Essays by T. II. Huxley. Macmillan, 1893.

It was in the early seventies that the Society of Arts made. an endeavour to supplement the scrappy teaching of Science in the Government-aided Classes by instruction in the applica tion of scientific principles to the practice of a few industries. The teaching of Technology, which is the distinguishing mark of Industrial Education, and has now established a firm footing in our schools, had its beginning in a very unpretentious scheme of the Society of Arts. Huxley as early as 1877 described it as "a system of instruction for persons employed in factories and workshops, who desired to extend and improve their knowledge of the theory and practice of their particular avocations." It was knowledge of this kind that artisans wanted and had hitherto been unable to obtain. The efforts of the Society were not attended with any large measure of success. There were no funds available for such teaching and the practical side of the instruction received little or no encouragement. Still the efforts of the Society gave the first stimulus to the spread of technological teaching in our industrial centres.

Of such teaching adapted to some few branches of the Building Trades, a practical example was found in the classes conducted by a small society of workmen known as the "Artisans Institute." I visited these classes early in the year 1880. They had their home in St Martin's Lane, not far from the present Offices of the Technical Education Board of the London County Council. The Rev. Henry Solly took an active part in their organisation, and the Institute was fortunate in securing, as one of its teachers, Mr C. T. Millis, the present Principal of the Borough Polytechnic. The teachers of these classes were trying to help their students, all of whom were artisans, to understand the theory of their work by showing them how a knowledge of the theory helped in the practice of their trade. In the Report of the Institute for the year 1879-1880 occur these words: "When instruction in the details connected with handicrafts is recommended, an off-hand reply is too generally given that the ordinary workshop is the proper school

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