The American Museum Journal 



Vol. XI X()\ I;MM1;1^ I'.tll No. 7 



COOPERATION IN EDUCATION 



/)'// Will aim II. Mitxinll 

 Sii|)criiiti'ii(lciil of Pultlic Schools. Xow York City 



Till-", prociit conlract for cor)])!-!-;!! ion Ims existed Ix-tweeii llir piililic 

 schools and the Aiiieriean Museum of Natural History foi- more 

 than thirty y(>ars. ^Fi-antime the dexclopmeiit of the schools 

 has pai'alleled the growth of the Museum au<l hotli liaxc kept ])ace with 

 the phenomenal upi)uiltlin_u- of the city. For the Museum's part in this 

 I extend my congratulations, because while the i)ul)lic school system has 

 liul de\('loped in accordance with tlie jjrogressiveness of the times, the 

 Museum has hroktMi away from all records of lunseum or^ani/ation and 

 maiutainiuij: its stand as an institution of science has distinctly identified 

 itself with education also. By so doing it has made ])ossil)le for the children 

 of the City of New ^'ork many good things from which they would otherwise 

 have been shut off. 



The teachers of se\ci-al thousands of classes in th(> scliools are working 

 under a difficulty of conditions not eciualled in any other ({uarter of the glolje. 

 One-third of the hundred thousand new pupils of each year cannot speak 

 English and niorcox-cr come from centers of the City where jx'ople live one 

 thousand to the acr(> and have the attendant ills of .such a congestion of 

 population. Tlu' i)rol)lem is to galxanize these classes into a spontaneity 

 of interest that will carry them into a new language, into the knowledge of 

 the grade and at the same time into a more wholesome, more sanitary life. 

 For these teachers the Museum's lectures and collections serve royally in 

 the threefold pui'po.se. 



I hail with satisfaction the trend of the Museum's work in its new de|)art- 

 meiit of public health, and in its woixls and forestry and habitat groups 

 which forma eontimially stronger hn'c to out-of-door life. Hven if nature 

 study may not yet ha\e been developed to give children practical knowledge 

 for lite acti\ities, it most positively does give a large working interest in the 

 direction of such knowledge. 



It will be increasingly the j)leasinv of the teachers to use the power the 

 Museum puts into their hands. In the near future these boys and girls 

 will be in control of the destiny of our ( "ity and the Museum's present 

 coc'iperation in their education will bear fruit a few years hence in citizens 

 more fitted to deal wisely with large (piestions on which depend health and 

 moral well-being, l-'oi- the study of nature is the foundation of that knowl- 

 edge which leads to increased productivity in industi-y and of those ideals 



of life that make for improved conditions of living. 



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