590 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



industry and commerce, together with the elements of civics treated 

 historically, that the pupil may see the interdependence of material 

 prosperity and social stability, and learn to look upon contemporary 

 social and economic problems in the light of their historical evolution; 

 one year of elementary algebra and geometry that may open his mind 

 lo one of the most useful, the most profound, and to some minds most 

 fascinating systems of thought which man has developed — a result which 

 can never be expected to follow from what the pupil has learned in the 

 narrow field covered by arithmetic; one year of drawing and manual 

 training that will introduce the pupil, on the one hand, to the elements 

 of the fine arts, the decorative arts and the mechanic arts, and on the 

 other, lead him to a just appreciation of the importance of all three in 

 ministering to the aesthetic and the material interests of men, and help 

 him to adjust his own relation to them in thought and deed.* 



That is to say, under existing conditions, I mean with the exist- 

 ing unsatisfactory pre-high-school education, still unsatisfactory 

 in spite of the well-nigh universal and decidedly creditable recent 

 attempts to improve it, it seems to me wise to prescribe for every high 

 school pupil at least one year of the language and literature of his 

 mother tongue; one year of American or English history (chiefly po- 

 litical); one year of English- and American economic history and 

 civics; or, when possible, one year of elementary political economy, one 

 year of a modern foreign language; one year of science (physical geog- 

 raphy, or botany and zoology); one year of algebra and geometry (to- 

 gether); one year of drawing and manual training; each of these 

 subjects with a time allotment of from three to four periods a week.f 

 This prescribed work includes subject matter comprising about one- 

 third of all the work a pupil of ordinary capacity should be required to 

 do during four years of the ordinary high-school program, chosen 

 from each of the great divisions of human culture. It thus affords a 

 reasonably satisfactory basis for the guidance of pupils, teachers and 

 parents, in the choices which they make or advise in harmony with 

 the pupil's real tastes and capacities. It seems to me, therefore, a safe 

 basis for the administration of the elective system in our secondary 

 schools. 



* Of course, I do not mean to imply that these results can be fully realized 

 in a single year's instruction in the subjects named in this paragraph. I 

 mean that these results are to be aimed at, whatever the duration of the in- 

 struction may be. 



t I suggest the following time schedule for these studies: English, 3; English, 

 History, or American History, 3; Economic History and Civics, or Political 

 Economy, 3; Modern Language, 4; Physical Geography, or Botany and Zoology, 

 4; Algebra and Geometry, or Algebra or Geometry, 4; Manual Training and 

 Drawing, 4. (The numbers mean so many exercises per week.) 



