130 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
CONTRIBUTION OF THE COLLEGE TO HIGH 
SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHING 
Joun C. HEssLer, JAMES MILLIKIN UNIVERSITY 
At the last Springfield meeting the speaker presented to 
the Academy a report on behalf of the committee on Secondary 
School Science. As he recalls that report he feels that he 
would like to state again its last sentence, to the effect that 
however great the benefits of the Academy may be in its stim- 
ulation of amateur and professional investigation, the members 
of the Academy can perform no greater service for the science 
of the future than to improve the quality of high school science 
teaching in their communities. The Academy has not been 
unmindful of the resources of the state, in the persons of the 
high school teachers of science. But in the attempt to realize 
upon these resources it has been peculiarly unfortunate, Many 
of those present will remember our last experience. After 
sending out to science teachers some hundreds of notices re- 
garding the work of the Academy, together with sample copies 
of the Transactions, the net return was, possibly, two or three 
applications for membership. The result seemed to prove con- 
clusively that the teachers of the state are not in sympathy 
with science. 
To say that the Academy was disappointed over the failure 
of science teachers to respond to its efforts is to state the 
case mildly. But instead of consoling ourselves with having 
done our duty, it behooves us to study the science situation 
more deeply and to learn the status of the average science 
teacher. The lists of accredited schools issued by the State 
Department of Public Instruction and by the Examiner of the 
State University are a revelation to one who is not familiar 
with high school conditions. Especially is this true if one 
considers the number of teachers in many of the schools, with 
the resultant large number of subjects to each teacher. No- 
where is the burden heavier and the effect more deplorable 
than in the science department, with its supposed laboratory 
method. A visit to a few of the smaller high schools and, 
alas, to some of the larger ones as well, verifies abundantly the 
suspicion aroused by the accredited lists, The fact is that only 
here and there can one find high school science being taught 
in a really efficient and inspiring manner. 
