PREFACE 



Much of the demand for courses in General Science in the 

 schools is no doubt due to the ever increasing complexity of 

 the more formal sciences there presented, but this is by no 

 means the chief reason for the introduction of such a course. 

 A large number of those who enter high school leave before 

 completing the regular program of studies and thus fail to 

 become acquainted with the special sciences, and still others 

 elect courses which include only a minimum^of these studies. 



The principal claim of General Science to a place in the 

 curriculum is that it will introduce such students, early in 

 their school life, to some of the fundamental principles of 

 science which are very essential to their success and happi- 

 ness in life and which they would otherwise miss almost 

 entirely. 



That General Science is also needed as an introduction to 

 the special sciences can scarcely be questioned. Enthusiastic 

 teachers, engrossed in their own subjects, usually overestimate 

 the amount of knowledge their pupils can bring to bear on the 

 work in hand and unconsciously plan their courses on lines 

 that are often beyond the ability of the student. The texts 

 in science designed for use with high school classes are also fre- 

 quently at fault, referring to such subjects as osmosis, change 

 of state, capillarity, diffusion, the molecular structure of mat- 

 ter, and chemical elements and reactions as if they were cus- 

 tomarily taught in the lower grades. In consequence, the 

 study of science appears so forbidding to the beginner that 

 none but the more venturesome elect it, and at a time when the 

 world's interest in scientific things was never greater, we are 

 confronted with the discouraging fact that in the schoolroom 



