Science Teaching in Schools

Abstract

IN his letter to NATURE of October 1 Mr. Shearcroft accepts the gloomy picture of the state of science teaching in schools with which we are becoming familiar. He writes as a teacher of science, but there are many other teachers of science who will not agree with him. Writing with the authority of the Committee of the Science Masters' Association I wish to put on record our opinion, shared we are certain by most of our members, that the science teaching in the schools of to-day is making an important and valuable contribution to the educational development of our young people and is helping them towards an understanding of their future surroundings which they would not obtain without it. We make no extravagant claims, but we do claim that we are giving those who leave the schools some insight into the method of separating the important from the unimportant, the true from the false, and we ask for a more just appreciation of the contribution of the science teacher to the intellectual make-up of the pupils in the schools.