I 4 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



tnral high schools are being- established. We know that the 

 conditions under which this is being- done leave much to be 

 desired. It has been difficult to find well qualified teachers, 

 the text-books are still a mixture of various sciences labelled 

 agriculture, and the arrangement of courses in the curriculum 

 is more often a matter settled by convenience than by any 

 scientific planning. To attempt to teach scientific agriculture 

 in schools without carefully planned scientific course of study 

 seems incongruous. Yet this is just what is being done in 

 too many schools. 



The service your committee had in mind is to bring to- 

 gether the practice of agricultural schools in various states 

 with respect to courses of study and methods of teaching, in 

 such a form that the best methods will be apparent and ac- 

 cessible for schools needing help in planning such courses. 

 If the Academy desires, the work will be continued on these 

 lines. 



There is another movement in high school science that 

 may furnish something for report in the coming year. We 

 all know that at present, science in the high schools as in the 

 colleges and universities is very distinctly divided into diflfer- 

 ent departments of botany, zoology, physics, chemistry, phys- 

 iography, etc. In the high schools these departments are 

 taught in different years and one year's work is not related 

 to any other year's work. To many this has seemed an un- 

 fortunate condition and one that does not tend to the ad- 

 vancement of science as a whole. Could not a consistent and 

 practical plan be worked out through which there would be 

 four years' work in science the work advancing step by step, 

 gradually unfolding the elementary principles of all the de- 

 partments of science as now taught. The dif^culties in the 

 way of accomplishing this are mostly administrative and, of 

 course, prejudice. The advantages would seem to be very 

 great, especially in time and energy saved, now lost through 

 not making use of the past work of pupils in each year's ad- 

 vance. It is reported that one school will attempt to work 

 out such a course. It is pioneer work and will require a fac- 

 ultv which can work in harmony. We hope the report is true. 



WORRALLO WHITNEY, 



Chairman. 



