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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



MODERN STUDIES IN ED UCA T10N. 

 TTTE hold educational reform to be 

 V V the first and most important of 

 all reforms. There are many things in 

 this world that need amendment, and, 

 happfly, there are plenty of people will- 

 ing to help on the work. By diverstiy 

 of tastes and division of labor, the busi- 

 ness of reform is taken up piecemeal, 

 and it is but natural that each party 

 should clamor for the precedence of its 

 own projects over all others. Some 

 think the world is only to be regener- 

 ated by reforming its drinks, others its 

 meats, others its recreations, and others 

 its times of labor. Some are sure that 

 what society most needs is better land- 

 laws, others that it is better revenue 

 regulations, and others, again, wider 

 suffrage or free-trade, or a closer sort- 

 ing of office-holders. Admitting that 

 much good is yet to be attained in all 

 these directions, there still remains a 

 more radical and comprehensive task 

 of reform. Our notion is. that the 

 great agency which undertakes to pre- 

 pare human beings for their work in 

 life by awakening and directing their 

 feelings, and by furnishing them with 

 ideas and knowledge, is in extreme 

 need of thorough amendment. Be- 

 cause, as men feel and think, so will 

 they act ; as are its constituents, so will 

 be society ; and, until people are better 

 instructed in the things which pertain 

 to their true welfare, all other reforma- 

 tory schemes will yield but partial and 

 unsatisfactory results. 



But the phrase " educational re- 

 form " is vague and capable of various 

 meanings. That phase of it which is 

 destined to work out the most exten- 

 sive and salutary effects will consist, 

 we believe, in reconstituting the gen- 

 eral methods of study upon a scientific 

 basis. "What the world wants now, to 



give effect to philanthropic aspiration, 

 is to know what to do and how to do 

 it, and the great means to this end must 

 be found in comprehensive scientific 

 education. But there is much misap- 

 prehension and some misrepresentation 

 as to what is properly meant by scien- 

 tific education. Its advocates urge the 

 increasing study of science, and it is 

 charged that they would make educa- 

 tion consist in the bare acquisition of 

 physical facts. They protest against 

 the excess of traditional studies, and 

 are reproached with the desire to sever 

 our mental connection with the past. 

 They object to the time given to Greek 

 and Latin, and are accused of being 

 the enemies of language in education. 

 In short, they ask the introduction of 

 new studies into an old system which 

 already covers the whole ground and 

 occupies all the time ; and, as this can 

 only be done by abandoning much that 

 is established and venerated, the advo- 

 cates of this change are characterized 

 as the narrow-minded foes of all liberal 

 culture. 



These imputations are, however, er- 

 roneous and unjust. What the advo- 

 cates of scientific reform in education 

 demand is, not that everybody shall 

 become chemists, or astronomers, or 

 geologists, or that the past shall be ig- 

 nored, or language neglected; but they 

 demand that the unfolding mind of the 

 age shall be put into more direct re- 

 lation with the present realities of the 

 world than our traditional culture al- 

 lows. They ask but the thorough 

 modernization of educational systems ; 

 and, as the characteristic and control- 

 ling element of modern thought is sci- 

 ence, they maintain that this should be 

 the characteristic and controlling ele- 

 ment of culture. They are the enemies 

 of neither literature, language, nor his- 



