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cific subject should be offered as an elective in the second year 
and thereafter, preferably in the form of several courses looking 
to practical and professional purposes in later life.”’—Francis H. 
J. Paul, DeWitt Clinton H. S 
“In my opinion elementary biology as now taught boys and 
girls in the City High Schools should be retained, if necessary, as 
a required study in the first year. It is practically required here 
and I find the boys very much interested in the subject. I believe 
that community civics and general science are fads which should 
not replace the biology. I am likewise in favor of classes in Ad- 
vanced Biology. I should consider it a misfortune for the youth 
of this city if biology were in any way curtailed.”—H. A. Potter, 
New Utrecht H. S. 
“In February of this year, we substituted for biology a full 
year in general science, which has as its core biological principles 
and their applications. Since the time for this study has been 
doubled, and fundamental principles in chemistry and physics are 
used as the basis of the biological work, I believe that the general 
science functions better in this school in one year than the biol- 
ogy did in one-half year. Nothing I have said in this letter mili- 
tates against my belief in the interest and value of elementary 
biology as now taught in our schools, but the conditions under 
which we are working here makes _ essential that we make a 
change to adapt ourselves to the circumstances which we are 
obliged to meet. Our course here in general science is funda- 
mentally a course in biology taught with greater effectiveness and 
with more time allotted to it.”—Gilbert J. Raynor, Commercial 
“TI have watched the development of this subject in the high 
schools of this city for a period of more than twenty years. Dur- 
ing this time I have not served as a teacher of biology, but for 
the most part as a teacher in charge of an annex or as principal 
of a high school. It is my opinion that no subject of the high 
school curriculum has contributed more essential and valuable 
information than has biology. There are certain phases of edu- 
cational discipline in which, I suppose, biology is excelled by such 
subjects as Latin, algebra, and geometry. It seems to me that the 
chief value of biology lies in its informational rather than in its 
