1 9 4 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE W u - 6 _ SEPT . , I9o8 



say "misfitting." In consequence the grave mistake has been 

 made of trying to force technical biology, or zoology and botany, 

 which is much worse — which may not be so bad for college strata — 

 down into the high schools. This course is sheer waste of time 

 for pupils who do not go on into college and a good deal worse for 

 those who do. 



Confusion worse confounded arises when college students of 

 biology go to teach in normal schools. Then the children in the 

 grades get college biology three removes out of its proper place. 

 It would be far better if biology teachers in our normal schools be 

 drawn from graduates of our agricultural colleges, or from the 

 ranks of intelligent gardeners and horticulturists, than from those 

 who have had the present biology course in many colleges, and 

 have been given no hint that it is not and cannot be "'adapted" 

 to the needs of normal-school students and grade pupils. If the 

 colleges are to train normal-school teachers in biology, it is 

 imperative that they supplement their present technical courses 

 by a thorough-going course in biological nature-study. That is, 

 there are a few things of vital import to the life of the child and 

 the home which his instructors must be able to teach. There are 

 innumerable other things — technical botany and zoology, among 

 the number — which are of no present importance to child or home, 

 to teach which is not only waste of time but often a positive 

 injury. 



There are also a few things that every decent member of a 

 community ought to know about the forces of living nature. 

 Every individual ought to learn — and the community has the 

 right to demand that he be taught and that he does learn — the 

 things of vital import to community life, before he assumes the 

 functions of citizenship. Here, then, is the legitimate field of 

 high-school biology at the threshold of active citizenship. These 

 vital matters are the interdependences of living things with 

 special reference to human health, life, and other interests. 

 Technical botany or zoology as commonly taught have little rela- 

 tion to these fundamental community interests. 



Health, individual and civic, is the paramount interest, a. 

 pound of which outweighs a ton of mere scientific information. 

 Cannot colleges give courses in hygiene and bacteriology which 

 shall enable their graduates to teach high-school pupils to keep' 

 themselves healthy and be more efficient in checking the spread 



