3. Science in Education - Page 2

Sir Smelfungus, if it gives you pleasure to put it
so--just that; a smattering, an all-round smattering. But remember that
in this matter the man of science is always influenced by ideas derived
from his own pursuits as specialist. He is for ever thinking what sort
of education will produce more specialists in future; and as a rule he
is thinking what sort of education will produce men capable in future of
advancing science. Now to advance science, to discover new snails, or
invent new ethyl compounds, is not and cannot be the main object of the
mass of humanity. What the mass wants is just unspecialised
knowledge--the kind of knowledge that enables men to get comfortably and
creditably and profitably through life, to meet emergencies as they
rise, to know their way through the world, to use their faculties in all
circumstances to the best advantage. And for this purpose what is wanted
is, not the methods, but the results of science.

One science, and one only, is rationally taught in our schools at
present. I mean geography. And the example of geography is so eminently
useful for illustrating the difference I am trying to point out, that I
will venture to dwell upon it for a moment in passing. It is good for us
all to know that the world is round, without its being necessary for
every one of us to follow in detail the intricate reasoning by which
that result has been arrived at. It is good for us all to know the
position of New York and Rio and Calcutta on the map, without its being
necessary for us to understand, far less to work out for ourselves, the
observations and calculations which fixed their latitude and longitude.
Knowledge of the map is a good thing in itself, though it is a very
different thing indeed from the technical knowledge which enables a man
to make a chart of an unknown region, or to explore and survey it.
Furthermore, it is a form of knowledge far more generally useful. A fair
acquaintance with the results embodied in the atlas, in the gazetteer,
in Baedeker, and in Bradshaw, is much oftener useful to us on our way
through the world than a special acquaintance with the methods of
map-making. It would be absurd to say that because a man is not going to
be a Stanley or a Nansen, therefore it is no good for him to learn
geography. It would be absurd to say that unless he learned geography in
accordance with its methods instead of its results, he could have but a
smattering, and that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A little
knowledge of the position of New York is indeed a dangerous thing, if a
man uses it to navigate a Cunard vessel across the Atlantic. But the
absence of the smattering is a much more dangerous and fatal thing if
the man wishes to do business with the Argentine and