76 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



first two years of science study in the higli school should 

 be devoted to a mastery of such fundamental principles 

 and facts of science as are likely to have the largest pos- 

 sible practical social outcomes in the lives and citizenship 

 of those we teach. It is not a matter of such great mo- 

 ment, whether we teach this science by the general science 

 method, the project method, the special science method, or 

 some admixture of these various methods; the matter of 

 common concern, is that we select, organize and teach by 

 some method, the kind of science that would be of most 

 social value, should it become generally known, among 

 high school graduates. 



Now, I know that it would be a perfectly fine thing if 

 every high school student could spend a year or even two 

 years in the study of botany or chemistry, or geography, 

 but it would be a deplorable thing if he had to remain 

 forever ignorant of all other science in order to do this. At 

 present, there are six fundamental sciences competing 

 with each other for space in the high school curriculum, 

 namely: botany, zoology, physiology, physical geography, 

 physics, and chemistry. It is absolutely impossible 

 that every high school student should be expected to study 

 each of these sciences, even if they should be offered in 

 half-year courses. I take it as self-evident, too, that each 

 of these six sciences contains something which ought to be 

 a part of the common pabulum of science knowledge pos- 

 sessed by high school graduates. Consequently, I believe 

 that the best thing to be done is to select from these six, 

 and possibly from other sources, the facts and 

 principles which are most worthy, because of their 

 direct social outcomes, to be made common knowledge 

 among the future citizens who are now passing thru the 

 higli schools, and then teach this science to all these 

 people, by the best methods that we can devise. You may 

 be asking: Am I overvaluing the knowledge side and 

 forgetting training in the scientific method and the scien- 

 tific attitude of mind? That is a matter of method, and 

 not so much a matter of subject matter. The science that 

 is socially most valuable, is just as good for training as 

 any other kind of science. 



By deliberately selecting a common pabulum of science 

 and seeking to teach it to every one who stays in high 

 school long enough to learn it, we shall greatly increase the 



