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at these two meetings which I have attended, in which the chief 
Opposition to such experiments have come from those who have 
not attempted to work out the problem. That is something we 
ought to think about. I believe in biology, and I should regard it 
as a most serious thing if any administration were to try to work 
out a course of study without it. 
The Chairman: There are two or three things which I think we 
should all keep in mind in the discussion of any question bearing 
upon Secondary Education. The first point I wish to refer to is 
the demand for making education practical. This seems to me to 
come more and more, not from inside the schools, not from pro- 
fessional men, but from business men, and as commonly used, the 
word “practical” means that we should teach pupils something 
they can use in commercial business. I need only refer to the 
demands for commercial arithmetic, business English, commer- 
cial geography, such purely occupational subjects as bookkeeping 
and stenography, and many other subjects. It seems to be lost 
sight of entirely that some will enter the professions of law ; some 
medicine; some the ministry ; and some of our high school grad- 
uates are going to become teachers, or authors, or historians, or 
scientists. We are apt to lose sight of these things, but they 
should always be kept clearly in mind when we discuss the ques- 
tion of making education practical. 
My second and final point seems to me exceedingly important. 
Almost all the speakers here this evening have laid emphasis upon 
the content of the course of study. I would like to emphasize the 
fact that it is not so important what information you give to the 
student, as it is that you bring before him as many as feasible 
of the various subjects in which one may become interested, for 
the purpose of enabling the pupil, early in life, to find out what 
that one thing is which interests him more than anything else; to 
help him to ascertain that which will prove to be his major interest 
in life. There are many persons who never discover that until 
too late, and yet it is the most essential element in success. It is 
important, therefore, to arrange our course of study with that in 
view. 
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden was established in order that it 
might be helpful in the work of primary and secondary, as well 
