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SCIDNCE AND EDUCATION 41 
THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL 
AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 
H. J. Van Cieave, UNiversity or ILLINOIS 
One of the real functions of the high school should be the 
training of men and women to live. In the secondary schools a 
large percentage of our population find their training and 
mental equipment for life. A realization of this state of affairs 
is bringing about a complete reorganization of the high school 
curriculum. Fortunately, most people have ceased to consider 
the primary function of the high school that of preparation 
for college. The modern trend of vocational education is a 
manifestation of the extreme point of view in this reorganiza- 
tion. No longer is any subject or group of subjects retained in 
the curriculum because of some hypothetical cultural value. 
Utilitarian values are constantly being more stressed. This, 
with the addition of new subjects to the curriculum, necessarily 
leads to a sort of competition between subjects. Values are 
constantly being weighed one against another with the result 
that many subjects are on their way toward elimination. 
Few administrators stop to ask the question if the basis for 
rejection of any subject is the intrinsic value of the subject 
per se or rather a valuation which has become attached to the 
subject because of unfortunate conditions and circumstances 
entirely foreign to the subject but usually associated with it, I 
believe in the case of zoology in the high schools it can be 
shown that the materials selected for study and the methods 
of presentation are responsible for the decline, where such has 
existed, rather than any intrinsic weakness in the fundamental 
subject matter as a factor in directing human activity. 
\ decade or two ago men like Spencer, Huxley, and Forbes 
convinced the educational world concerning the values of 
biology with the result that the study of biology was given a 
considerable impetus and prestige as a subject of instruction in 
the schools. At that time the number of subjects offered in the 
high school was relatively small. Competition between sub- 
jects for a place in the curriculum had scarcely begun. Biology 
