although moseley was at first successful in securing funding for practical scientific equipment and resources for student experimentation in schools science did not become a basic part of the elementary school tradition instead object lessons becme commonplace in which the teacher exhibited a common object such as piece of coal or its representation such as a picture of a horse and then elicited from pupils its description definition and properties( layton 1973) this was a far cry from the science of common things' and the public educator curriculum
williams describes a further source of the public educators this was a group drawn from the working classes who had an impact through adult education by introducing the elements of the the students choice of subject the relation of disciplines to actual contemporary living and the parity of general discussion with expert instruction williams (1961 page 165)