2358 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



twenty-three attended other colleges in the state. A few say they are self 

 taught. 



Ninth. Preparation of the student. Of elementary science in the grades, 

 fifty per cent, of the schools do " a little," twenty-one per cent, do regular nature 

 study work; and the remaining twenty-nine per cent, do none. One school, 

 Menominee, has a high school course called nature study. The principal, and the 

 instructor, Mr. W. L. German, writes that this course has proved so much of a 

 success that it is to be continued. He says, quoting from a letter of his : " The 

 grade work has not been sufficient to enable our high school to begin science 

 work upon a fair basis. It occurred to us that a year's work could be planned 

 that would round out what had already been done, that would lead the pupil 

 into a correct method in science work, and that would lead up to the after work 

 of our courses. My talks and observation lessons have been along three lines — 

 physiography, botany, and physics. My present class is composed largely of 

 boys. I have studied them, that I might find their lines of interest, their needs. 

 I have studied nature, the world just about us in all of its aspects, that I might 

 bring it indoors or take them outside to see, to feel, and to know it. At the 

 middle of the year I took in several first year boys who were seeming failures 

 elsewhere. They have in every case made a success of nature study. These 

 boys tell me, " We like this hour better than any other in school." The subject 

 is one that will enable us here to hold boys right on to the end of the year." 

 This first year of preparatory work is followed in the second year by physical 

 geography and physiology. Botany and physics, each full year subjects, come in 

 the third year, and the year of chemistry is placed in the fourth year of the high 

 school course. 



Will the time soon come when our boys and girls, after being in the 

 school eight years, will know all the forest trees, all the wild flowers and 

 weeds, all the flowers and vegetables of the garden and their general mode of 

 life, and the relation of flower to fruit ? Will they also know the haunts and 

 habits of our native animals and be able to recognize our list of about seventy 

 common birds and tell what they are good for ? Will they be able to tell the 

 direction of the wind and its possible shifting ? Will they know a toad from a 

 frog and the poison ivy from the woodbine ? When they do we shall be able to 

 extend our biology courses in the high school, and our young people will have 

 sharper eyes, keener ears, stronger lungs, and a deeper enjoyment in the big 

 out-of-doors which belongs to them. Perchance too they will have a more 

 rational view of life. 



SUMMARY. 



Most of our schools give a fair amount of time to the teaching of the three 

 biological subjects if it were all utilized. The physiology, owing perhaps to 

 the nature of the material, is rarely ever given in a manner that allows that sub- 

 ject to be counted. Botany and zoology are the biological sciences recognized 

 by the university in its entrance requirements. A fair consideration of the con- 

 dition of these two subjects in our high schools brings us to the conclusion that 

 too little time and too little equipment is devoted to them to allow of solid labo- 



