INTRODUCTION. 



TRAINING IN NATURAL SCIENCE AS AN ESSENTIAL 

 FACTOR IN THE EDUCATION OF THE CITIZEN. 



I. A WIDESPREAD MOVEMENT IN FAVOR OF IT. 



Anyone who has noticed the topics of discussion upon 

 the programmes of the various meetings of teachers, dur- 

 ing the past year, cannot have failed to see that the 

 subject of science teaching in the common schools is 

 occupying the thoughts of educators very widely. 



The programme of a meeting of a State Teachers' Asso- 

 ciation, announced for this month (October), contains five 

 papers on the subject of science. 



The American Institute of Instruction, at its annual 

 meeting this year, devoted a whole half-day's session to 

 the consideration of science teaching and finished by 

 adopting the following resolution: "Resolved, That in- 

 struction in natural science by experimental methods 

 should be given in schools of all grades; that in primary 

 and grammar grades it should take the form of observation 

 lessons, calculated to develop the spirit of investigation, 

 so that by the time the pupil reaches the high school he 

 will be prepared to begin more systematic study; that in 

 the high school it should undertake to give a thorough 

 training in scientific methods of studying Nature rather 

 than a comprehensive knowledge of the whole realm of 

 natural science." 



During the year, President Oilman of Johns Hopkins 

 University, in an address to the Woman's College of 

 Baltimore, said: "fi. knowledge of the methods of scientific 

 inquiry is also of great value more valuable than the 

 possession of a thousand facts. Science has its methods 

 of procedure and its criteria which lead to the ascertain- 



