Public Money and the Public Good
Public Money and the Public Good
The chapter examines changing modes of support for scientific research and science education. The X-men were deeply committed to the expansion of science education but, contrary to historiographical opinion, were not leading lobbyists for state aid to science. Their activism in education was sustained by the belief that science would change “ways of thinking.” They lobbied, sat on committees, examined, and wrote textbooks. Most notably, Huxley and Lubbock were members of the Devonshire Royal Commission on the advancement of science. They failed to persuade elite public schools and the well-endowed ancient universities that science was essential to a liberal education, but were successful at lower levels, through the burgeoning examination system of the Science and Art Department, which met the aspirations of middling sorts of people. Thus, the School of Science at South Kensington, a school for training teachers, became the chief institution of science education in England and the School of Mines, from which it was carved, diminished in status. Finally, the chapter focuses on Hirst, whose career in science education provides vignettes of the social life of the X Club and of gender issues– including the roles of the Club wives and contemporary controversies on education for women.
Keywords: science education, state aid to science, examinations, the Science and Art Department, the Devonshire Commission, the School of Science, South Kensington, science in liberal education, Thomas Archer Hirst, gender, the X Club wives
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