ENTOMOLOGY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



By J. W. FOLSOM, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENTOMOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ILL. 



In any agricultural community the teacher ought to 

 be able to tell the pupils how to protect crops from the attacks 

 of insect enemies. By so doing he could increase his usefulness. 

 The high schools in farming regions might to advantage replace 

 the third and fourth years of Latin, Greek and ancient history 

 by more useful subjects, including a certain amount of ento- 

 mology. In city schools there is no great necessity for teaching 

 economic entomology; but any high school that is sufficiently 

 advanced to offer botany or zoology should offer also the ele- 

 mentary entomological facts that no educated person should be 

 ignorant of. 



Entomology is not taught in secondary schools for two rea- 

 sons: (i) the curriculum does not call for it; (2) the teacher 

 knows little or nothing about it. Put entomology in the curri- 

 culum and teachers will soon hurry to learn something about it. 

 They will buy books, or go to the public library; and some 



FIG. 1. STAGES IN LIFE OF SQUASH Hill 



of them will have enough enthusiasm and originality to go 

 outdoors and learn something through their own investigations. 

 If unable to attend courses in entomology, one can, neverthe- 

 less, get help in difficulties by writing to university instructors, 

 to state entomologists or to state experiment stations. 



If you are teaching natural history to young people, you 



