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nouncement of the meeting, as to what it is which has brought us 
together. We are at the beginning of a new era of reconstruction. 
One of the questions for us to consider is: Does biology, espe- 
cially as a subject of secondary education in public and private 
schools, need reconstruction in any way because of the war? 
Has the war brought to light any things which were not brought 
to light before the war? That is the problem before us. 
The meeting which was held two or three weeks ago, under the 
auspices of the Torrey Botanical Club, was for the purpose of 
finding out whether biology did need reconstruction. As a result 
of the discussion at that meeting, many things were brought to 
light. One was that there is a feeling among many teachers, as 
well as among those outside the teaching profession, that biology 
does need reconstruction as a part of the high school course of 
study. The second was that there is considerable pressure brought 
to bear to introduce new subjects into the city high schools, and 
two subjects were mentioned, namely, general science and com- 
munity civics. Then a third thing was brought out, namely, that 
these subjects are proposed for the first year of the high school, 
and that the first year of the high school has already a full 
schedule, and that no more could be introduced unless we elim- 
inated, or very greatly curtailed, some subjects there already. 
And then, of course, another fact came to light, and that was that 
there are a number of persons, some of them in the administra- 
tive department of the public school system, who are actually op- 
posed to biology in the high school, and have so stated. This, I 
think, was a real revelation to many people. And further, there 
was a feeling that it would be an advantage to have a discussion, 
particularly with those who are in doubt as to whether biology, as 
now taught in the high schools, is accomplishing all that it might 
accomplish—as much as other subjects are accomplishing. With 
that object in mind, it was voted that the Director of the Brook- 
lyn Botanic Garden be asked to call a conference for that purpose. 
The date of this meeting was set only after an exchange of 
letters with Dr. Tildsley, Associate Superintendent of Schools of 
New York City, for the purpose of getting a date on which Dr. 
Tildsley could be present, as everybody felt that he would un- 
doubtedly have something to say which would not only interest 



