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The Chairman: Principal Zabriskie, of the Washington Irving 
High School, intended to be present, but writes me under date of 
March 26, that it will be impossible for him to do so, and says: 
“T am sending these few words to express my unreserved ap- 
proval of the value of biology as a high school subject. Frankly, 
I am surprised at the statement made that biology ‘does not func- 
tion.’ I assume the phrase is meant to convey the thought that it 
has little actual bearing upon the lives of students. If this is so, 
the criticism is rather one upon the method of instruction than 
upon the study itself, for I believe the subject of biology is one 
of the most important means for the development of correct 
habits of hygienic living and of civic responsibility.” 
I have asked, outside of the administrative officers of the school 
system, three speakers from among the teaching body. I thought 
it was no more than courteous that the President of the Biology 
Teachers’ Association should have an opportunity to speak on 
behalf of the teachers, and I have asked Dr. Bedford to speak 
because he is conducting a teachers’ class in General Science at 
Hunter College. 
Dr. Bedford: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am 
heartily in favor of biology in high schools, but doubt whether it 
should be the introductory course. In discussing high school work 
the needs of biology or of any special science deserves no con- 
sideration ; the only consideration is that of the need of the pupil. 
We must deliberate as teachers, not as scientists. 
The pupil at the ninth year has reached a stage in which he is 
not ready for the generalizations of the special sciences, but 7s 
ready for an explanation of the common things about him which 
demand what we call a scientific explanation. He is at the very 
crest of the wave of inquiry or curiosity, and now has the ability 
to appreciate the meaning of things. He is interested in his en- 
vironment as a whole. The painstaking working out of details 
for the sake of development of principles does not appeal to him 
at this time. 
Biology as a first year science has been successful just to the 
extent that it has ceased to be specifically biological and has be- 
come more of a study of the environment. Every biology teacher 
will tell you that the biology offered in the first year course to-day 
