The Relative Value and Extent of Scientific and Literary 
Teaching in a High School Course 
J. C. HAMBLETON 
In the preparation of a course of study for our High Schools 
it is necessary to bear in mind that there are two classes of 
pupils to be served, those who expect to continue their studies 
in some university and those who will not, at most, more than 
finish the High School course. Of these two classes the latter is 
far the more numerous and consequently the more important 
and should receive the greater attention. Usually they are the 
children of the middle classes and have parents whose opposition 
has had to be overcome before they are permitted to complete 
the High School course. It is for this class it seems to me we 
should endeavor to build a course of study, such that it will best 
fit them for the life that they will, by force of circumstances, be 
obliged to lead. 
High school pupils are not all alike any more than are their 
parents. The child very early manifests the likes and dislikes 
that are to control its actions during life, and wise is the teacher 
or parent who is able to discover these tendencies and develop 
rather than attempt to destroy them. This then is ample reason 
for having a varied course of study wherever this is possible. 
Then, also the pursuits of men today are exceedingly varied, and 
to follow them successfully makes necessary many different kinds 
of preparation. Our colleges and universities have already 
learned this and now we see that almost every human occupation 
that requires knowledge and skill in its pursuit is taught in our 
institutions of higher education. 
But the question is, shall this same latitude in the choice of 
studies be allowed in our high schools? Is it true, as some con- 
tend, that nothing but a few years of literary training will give a 
person that culture which is so essential to the true gentleman? 
Or, can he study the sciences and acquire that same mental 
ability that the study of the classics is reputed to give him? Will 
the time ever come when the study of Physics or Chemistry or 
Botany will occupy as prominent a place in our curricula as that 
which is occupied by Latin today? 
