442 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Furthermore, it is essential to agree upon tentative 

 large units of subject matter best suited to the realiza- 

 tion of these newly stated social purposes. A dozen, 

 more or less, of such units made up by selecting the con- 

 tent from a variety of sources in the general field, ex- 

 tending from ancient times to modern, will constitute a 

 more satisfactory curriculum pabulum, which will be 

 superior to that which has been offered in water-tight 

 compartment fashion. This is true especially in rela- 

 tion to the first three years of secondary education. 

 Gradually more intensive work built upon the earlier 

 larger units of subject matter can be outlined for the 

 last three years or less of secondary education. This 

 method of approach in social studies is but one example 

 of what can be done in other secondary school subjects. 

 The use of this larger unit of subject matter for the 

 earlier approach in secondary school subjects consti- 

 tutes a fundamental aspect which should be taken into 

 account in our newer technique of curriculum construc- 

 tion. 



More experimental schools than now exist should be 

 established in different sections of our country, and en- 

 dowed for the purpose of carrying on scientific curricu- 

 lum experimentation and construction in secondary 

 schools. At the present time only a limited number of 

 such schools exist in widely scattered areas. There is 

 no more important and worthy desideratum just now in 

 our attempt to reconstruct secondary education in Amer- 

 ica than the matter of experimental research in relation 

 to secondary school curricula. 



The Bureau of Research, which has been established 

 recently within state universities and in state teachers 

 colleges, can do considerable to bring the gravity of this 

 problem of curriculum construction to the attention of 

 progressive school people through statistical study and 

 investigation of present practices in curriculum formu- 

 lation. 



A limited number of schools have attempted a tenta- 

 tive reformulation of all their subject matter taught. 

 The cooperation of educational experts and of public or 

 private school officers in curriculum making, when well 



