i.AvisJ DEPARTMENT OFSCIENCE EDUCATION 211 



of a School System". Two phases of this subject were taken up. 

 The first, on the ''Relation of Science Departments of Secondary 

 Schools to Elementary Teachers", was introduced by C. H. Robi- 

 son of the State Normal School, Montclair, N. J. The fact that 

 many of the teachers in the elementary schools are being recruited 

 from pupils and graduates of high schools, together with the 

 <lireot help that high school departments of science may give to 

 the elementary teachers in a school system that has nature-study 

 on its program, makes the high school science instruction doubly 

 important. It cannot do its best service by following the conven- 

 tional types of instruction. The following is a brief abstract of 

 Mr. Robison's paper: 



"With many of the 500,000 common school teachers leaving the 

 profession every year, evidently the graduates among the 72,000 nor- 

 mal school students and the 955,000 high school students together could 

 scarcely supply the deficiency, supposing every high school graduate 

 became a teacher. Most city teachers are graduates of high schools; 

 while many in the country are not, numbers have attended high schools 

 one or two years. Facts so important as to be used in the grades 

 surely deserve a place in high school science. When graduates enter- 

 ing normal schools do not know maples from elms or robins from 

 English sparrows, biology or the administration of the high school is 

 remiss. The curative effect of oxygen and the germicidal effect of sun- 

 light and heat are fit subjects in cities for both nature-study in the 

 grades and science in the high school. The rural phase of the tree 

 problem is concerned rather with timber and fruit trees. The robin, 

 on the economic side, is rivaled by the hawk. "Boil the water" gives 

 way to "Don't pollute the well". The study of agriculture in rural 

 high schools is greatly stimulating interest in nature and is preparing 

 teachers to give it proper attention in rural elementary schools. Two 

 years ago 250 secondary schools taught agriculture; one year ago, 500; 

 this year the number has again probably doubled; 6,000 students were 

 studying agriculture in 188 of these high schools with an enrollment 

 of 16,000, drawn from over half a million people; 4,000 of these stu- 

 dents came from farms. It is estimated that over 2,000 of the stu- 

 dents in these high schools will later teach in the rural schools of 

 their neighborhoods." 



The discussion following this paper was led by State Supt. 

 E. C. Bishop of Nebraska. 



The second phase of the subject on '^Practical Aspects of 

 Biologic Science in School Administration ; The Problem of Jani- 

 tor Service", was taken up by Dr. Helen C. Putnam, Providence, 

 R. L, who spoke not only from her professional interest in the 

 matter, but from a recent personal examination of the janitor 

 service in the leading public and normal schools of some fifteen 

 states. She pointed out the inconsistency of teaching sanitation, 

 relation of dust and dirt to disease, care of the body, importance 

 of good ventilation, etc., in classroom and in laboratory when in 



