104 NATURESTUDY REVIEW [12:3— Mch., 1916 



common schools and members appointed by the local board in 

 charge of the common schools, there is very close unification in 

 the ideas that permeate and direct the two systems of schools. 

 In the year 1914-1915, there were twenty-nine cities that main- 

 tained continuation schools in the state under the provisions of 

 the law. The significance of the presentation up to this point 

 is to emphasize that there is no state where vocational educa- 

 tion has had such favorable conditions for influence on the point 

 of view and content of the subjects that antedated vocational 

 instruction, as in Wisconsin. 



In this state the persons who are most largely responsible for 

 the courses of study and the attitude toward a particular sub- 

 ject in the courses are the city superintendents, village princi- 

 pals, and the state department of education. Further, it seems 

 safe to assume that the instructors in the higher institutions 

 of learning, the normal schools and the university, exert no small 

 influence in the determination of points of view in the various 

 subjects taught in the courses in the schools of the state. 

 Thus it was believed that a fair index of the present trend of 

 Nature-Study might be obtained by securing a reaction to a 

 questionaire relative to the matter under consideration. This 

 questionaire made inquiry as to whether or not systematic courses 

 in Nature-Study are taught in the grades of the town, village, 

 or city schools; the objections to and difficulties in such courses; 

 the aims of Nature-Study instruction in the primary, inter- 

 mediate, and grammar grades; the extent to which prevocational 

 courses are presented; the specific aims in these courses; the 

 particular subjects in the grades other than prevocational sub- 

 jects, in which special effort is made to emphasize the voca- 

 tional aspect ; and finally the objections, if any, to giving Nature- 

 Study a vocational trend. A questionaire was sent to each 

 city superintendent, every village principal in which the pop- 

 ulation of the village was 1000 or more, to the supervisory staff 

 of the state department of education, to the principals of the 

 training schools of the normal schools of the state, and to every 

 teacher of science or near related subject in the eight normal 

 schools of the state; 88 replies were received of the 153 sent to 

 city superintendents and village principals, and 46 replies of 

 the 8 1 that were sent to the training school principals, members of 

 the state department, and teachers of science and near related sub- 



