28 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE HIGH SCHOOL COUESE 1 



By President DAVID STARR JORDAN 



STANFORD UNIVERSITY 



IT has been lately said by an honored teacher that the weakest part 

 in our educational system is the high school. It has less unity in 

 theory and less definiteness in practise than any other, and those who 

 have charge of its administration are less sure that they are doing the 

 right thing, than is the case with other types of schools. " As a 

 forcing house between grammar school and college," says a recent 

 writer, " the high school hasn't time to do anything very well." Hence 

 it may be well to try to do fewer things, thus saving time to do some 

 things better. 



If we were to start at the beginning of education we should change 

 a good many things. Especially should we distinguish between the 

 college and the university in making the former the stepping-stone 

 to the latter. But accepting our colleges and universities as they are, 

 at the same time discarding the results of tradition and of half-hearted 

 experiment, what should the high school do ? By high school we mean 

 the instruction in the public school for four years of school life from 

 the age of 13 or 14 to that of 17 or 18, resting on the primary and 

 grammar school on the one hand and presumably leading to the college 

 on the other — in most cases the last of the years in which a student 

 lives at home and goes to school. 



The high school as thus denned has these duties clearly indicated : 

 to give a rounded development of physical and mental powers, so that 

 no line of talent shall perish by default; it should indicate and empha- 

 size that form of ability which will count for most in the conduct of 

 life and it should do its foundation work with such thoroughness that 

 the higher education may be built upon it with the certainty that the 

 attainments shall be solid so far as they go. This is all that the 

 colleges and universities have the right to ask, and for them to specify 

 certain classes of subjects regardless of the real interest of the secondary 

 schools and their pupils is a species of impertinence which only tradi- 

 tion justifies. To demand thoroughness of secondary instruction and 

 to enforce this demand in any practicable way is the duty of the college, 

 but the question of what the high schools shall teach is a question for 

 these schools to decide for themselves. In general, the high-school 



1 Address before the California State Teachers' Association, Santa Cruz, 1907. 



