40 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
Our science courses in college and high school have passed 
through just as distinct phases as have the development of the 
microscope and automobile. At the time of Linnaeus's first 
connection with the University of Upsala there was a marked 
movement there toward field work in natural history which so 
upset the equilibrium of the institution that Linnaeus was 
forced to resign. Attendant upon the development of the 
microscope was an awakening in microscopic technique. Mod- 
ern research in the higher sciences has brought into the text 
books and our teaching a mass of material much of which, 
after trial, proves too heavy for the mind of the high school 
pupil. This seems to be the climax of specialization in high 
school science. Hitherto we have been most interested in the 
proper presentation of our subjects in all their fullness and 
beauty; the development of the child or the man has been quite 
incidental. 
"Certain defects of science courses in content and in methods 
are becoming increasingly apparent. In some respects science 
teaching is not as closely related to the environment and ex- 
perience of the pupil today as it was a quarter century ago. 
With the elaboration of apparatus and the increased attention 
to quantitative methods, there has come an aloofness from the 
experience of everyday life, so that the pupil may secure a high 
standing in physics, chemistry, biology without necessarily 
gaining an understanding of their applications. Moreover, 
teachers in science in some instances over-emphasize the im- 
portance of formal and fixed procedure and, as a result, are not 
alert to utilize new opportunities." 
/The reaction now is toward making each subject valuable 
and interesting to the pupil, and toward a closer articulation 
of the subjects as opposed to their former isolation and in- 
dividualness. Courses are being compiled and fitted, being 
cut down here and built out there, the high places made low 
and the valleys filled, in order that classes may be held through 
the course. 
The Commissioner of Education in the report for 1910 
brings out the potent fact that at the then existing rate of 
decline, physiology will cease to be studied by 1925, physics by 
1935, chemistry by 1945, and physical geography by 1960. 
While these statements seem overdrawn, yet they do empha- 
size the inefficiency of our past methods of presenting our 
sciences and their suicidal effect. 
Without entering into the lengthy discussion of conditions 
which we all appreciate, may we turn to the immediate topic. 
Within the last decade there has sprung up a great dissatis- 
