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5. The Relation of Pure and Applied Science in Secondary 



Education. 

 Worrallo Whitney. 

 The field which the subject of this symposium covers is so 

 ^reat that, for the Hmited time at my disposal, it seems best 

 to confine my inquiry to some one phase of the question. I 

 have chosen, therefore, a topic that has interested me for some 

 time, one which is finding expression among science teachers 

 in the agitation for a general science course for the first year 

 of the high school course of study. I shall inquire into the 

 position of science in the curricula of the high schools, es- 

 pecially as to whether science is receiving the attention it de- 

 serves in comparison with its importance in every day life and 

 in comparison with other departments in the high school. The 

 question also as to whether the applied sciences now being 

 added to the curricula of many schools are being articulated 

 with the pure science courses already in the course of study 

 is an important one. 



It does not seemi very necessary to call attention to the in- 

 creasing importance of science in every day life. Every one 

 is familiar with the facts of the achievements of science, es- 

 pecially those that are spectacular, but these achievements are 

 becoming such an every day matter, taken for granted that 

 one must pause to think, before he realizes fully how far- 

 reaching the field of science really is, and how fast it is in- 

 creasing these days, with the advances in electricity, transpor- 

 tation, gas, sanitary and medical science, agriculture, forestry, 

 etc. Take the one field of sanitary science ; the advance from 

 simple guess work to accurate scientific knowledge has meant 

 the saving of untold thousands of lives, and its work for good 

 has just begim. Its field is in every home, of more importance in 

 the homes of the ignorant and poor than in the homes of the 

 educated and rich. 



Few can doubt that agriculture will, in the near future, be 

 rescued from the ruts into which it has fallen on account of 

 the virgin fertility of the soil and put upon a scientific basis. 

 Many are beginning to recognize that the hope of a prosper- 

 ous future of our country depends upon this. 



In view of the supreme importance of science in life, one 



