THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW' 



DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN 

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



Vol. 7 September, 1911 No. 6 



THE PLACE OF FORESTRY IN GENERAL EDUCATION* 



By HERBERT A. SMITH, Forest Service 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture 



The now widely awakened interest in forestry is leading to- 

 the introduction of some sort of teaching about it — sometimes 

 as a distinct course either in forestry or in the conservation of 

 natural resources, sometimes as a part of older courses of study — 

 into the curriculum both of schools and of colleges and univer- 

 sities in connection with general as distinguished from vocational 

 education. This has not gone far as yet, but it reaches inta 

 every stage of education from the nature-study work of the 

 primary schools to the elective courses of the student approaching 

 his degree. Whether we like it or not, forestry is taking a 

 place in general education. It is important that the teaching of 

 it should be rightly guided and properly coordinated with educa- 

 tional work generally. 



I presume that I shall seem, to most of you, to take a strange 

 position when I say that I think forestry a cultural subject. To 

 make clear why I hold this I am going to ask you to let me pass 

 very briefly in review certain recent changes in educational ideals 

 which have been illustrated in the content of secondary educa- 

 tion. 



As we all know, secondary education has been in a state of 

 more or less confusion during some years. It has lacked cer- 

 tainty both as to what ends it should aim at and what methods 

 it should use. First of all the sciences, with the modern languages 

 as their allies, successfully disputed the exclusive claims of 

 the old classical course studies. This they did largely on the 

 plea of their own superior practical value. We had reached, we 

 were told, a scientific age. The task of education should be to 

 teach us to think scientifically and to conquer the material world. 



*Read before the Conference on Education in Forestry, held in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, December 30 and 31, 1909. 



