320 Science After the War
to know much science, but they ought to know enough to
employ scientists to solve scientific problems. In this country,
at any rate, I think it is fair to say the politicians, as a rule,
do know enough to get scientists to solve scientific problems.
Scientific knowledge is now so vast and complicated that
scientists tend more and more to become specialists. It
seems impossible to avoid this, and it is going to be the case
in the future at least as much as now.
We need better schools and better universities. Do we
need more science in schools? I say, not unless we can get
good science teachers. My experience of school science, in
England, was that it was often a farce, and we can do very
well without such science. It seems probable that boys and
girls are too young to get much advantage from the syste-
matic study of science except when it is really well taught,
and not always then. They merely acquire a jumble of facts,
the relations of which they do not understand. Boys and
girls should be encouraged to develop scientific hobbies out-
side school hours; e.g., many boys amuse themselves with
wireless telegraphy or dabble in chemistry. These hobbies
should be encouraged ; they often lead to a genuine interest in
Scienceverydifferent from the contempt produced by farcical
school lessons under incompetent teachers. Everything de-
pends on the teacher. I am in favor of more science in
schools if you can get first-rate science teachers, otherwise
I would sooner have less science, not more. The only way
to get better teachers is to pay them more.
As to science in universities, the war in this country has
brought many university teachers into close contact with
manufacturers and users of scientific devices. This is going
to increase the tendency for the best scientists here to leave
the universities and devote themselves to commercial work.
Science is beginning to have a commercial value. Several