SCIENCE IX SECONDARY SCHOOLS 153 



for example, the topics electricity, heat, light, etc., will appear in 

 all courses, no matter what the treatment, and only a study of 

 the methods in use in applying the topics will show what progress 

 has been made. 



For the purpose of this inquiry it will be sufficient to compare 

 two courses of study for botany — one dated June, 1908, and in 

 official use since that time, the other recently adopted for future 

 guidance. 



A comparative study of these two outlines shows that in the 

 earlier one the year's work was divided into two parts corre- 

 sponding to the semesters, one occupied with a survey of the 

 plant kingdom taking up the groups in evolutionary order, the 

 other, usually given in the second semester, dealing with the seed 

 plants and outlined in structural order. Theoretically this looks 

 like an ideal plan, and it appealed to college men who write text 

 books of botany for us and to teachers of botany fresh from the 

 uni^'ersity, as the only course to give. But we who are in the 

 business of teaching botany in high schools had difficulties in 

 applying it. Our pupils were not interested, little enthusiasm 

 could be aroused — many pupils failed — in fact, only the brightest 

 pupils got anything out of the first semester's work. The second 

 semester's work was needed to restore interest lost in the first 

 half year's work, and even that dealt with structure to such an 

 extent that the interesting spots in the course were in danger of 

 being lost sight of. The work on the local flora in the spring 

 was the only thing that saved our classes in botany from extinc- 

 tion. We turned out few botanists. 



As soon as the average teacher realized what was happening, 

 he began to inject into the course various features, mostly in the 

 line of field and home studies, to add interest and appeal to the 

 experience of the pupil. The most popular of these were studies 

 of fall flowers, leaves, trees, woods, and various studies of the 

 commercial uses of plants and plant parts. 



Turning now to our recently adopted course, it is easy to see 

 how this has finally worked out. It will be noted at once that 

 the studies of plant groups occupy only about half of a semester, 

 instead of an entire semester. Evidently, detailed studies of 

 structure must be omitted in using this course, since there will 

 not be time for such work. The title itself is quite illuminating, 

 indicating that the laboratory is not the only place to study botany. 

 It is interesting to note various topics not found in the old course, 

 all of which appeal to the human interest of the pupil, such as 



