NATURAL SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 667 



These two elementary courses lay a strong foundation for the 

 high-school course, and also pave the way to the intelligent study 

 of vertebrate life, while the three courses — primary, grammar, 

 and. high — furnish a valuable preparation for the advanced bio- 

 logical studies of our scientific schools and colleges. There has 

 been much discussion in our leading journals of late in regard to 

 the teaching of biology in the higher institutions of learning. 

 What to teach and how to teach it have been pressing questions. 

 Courses of study have been proposed which certainly have been 

 ideal for ideal students, but which have almost wholly over- 

 looked the important fact that the majority of the young men 

 and women who are to take these courses have never learned the 

 A, B, C of science work. Many professors, dissatisfied with the 

 poor results obtained, have recognized the chief cause, and as- 

 serted that " the college instructor must still regard the student 

 who studies under him as a school-boy whose capacity for observ- 

 ing and investigating natural objects has been blunted by a one- 

 sided course of instruction at school." * In other words, the col- 

 lege is forced to do preparatory work. This the college ought 

 never to do. Preparatory work belongs to preparatory schools. 

 A young man or woman at eighteen ought to be fitted to enter 

 upon an industrial career or upon a scientific or classical course 

 of study, as individual taste or necessity dictates, with hands 

 trained to do a little manual work well, with eyes keen-sighted 

 enough to see things as they are, and with brains capable of 

 thinking upon these things independently. 



I have outlined in brief a primary and grammar-school course 

 upon animals. I have been aided in the preparation of these 

 courses by the " Guides for Science Teaching," Nos. Ill- VII, by 

 Prof. Alpheus Hyatt. Prof. Crosby's " Science Guide," No. XII, 

 and Mrs. Richards's " Guide," No. XIII, are admirable aids in 

 preparing a course upon our common minerals and rocks. The 

 " Science Guide," No. II, by ' Prof. Goodale, and the well-known 

 works of Prof. Gray, help in adapting the subject of botany to 

 young minds. The present paper is considering the natural 

 rather than the physical sciences, as these "are now generally 

 acknowledged to afford the best means of developing the powers 

 of observation and comparison," 



It is impossible to discuss broadly and justly the questions 

 why and how shall science lessons be given in elementary schools 

 without some knowledge of the history of the movement which 

 has given birth to these questions, and also some knowledge of 

 the present status of our schools on the general subject of science 

 teaching. The movement of which we speak the coming century 

 will surely regard as one of the really great movements of our 



* See "American Naturalist," June, 1887. 



