IV PREFACE 



equipment far in advance even of College instruction in 

 these subjects a generation ago. Work of this character 

 requires a certain maturity on the part of the pupil, as 

 well as some knowledge of other High School subjects, and 

 it cannot be maintained unless Physics and Chemistry 

 are kept in the later years of the course. 



While Physics and Chemistry as such ought not to be 

 put into the early years of the High School, yet instruction 

 in the simpler principles of these sciences can be given 

 in a first-year General Science course. The most im- 

 portant part of this course will be introductory notions of 

 physical and chemical phenomena, but the course should 

 include much more than this. The problems of modern 

 conveniences and of their relation to scientific discovery, 

 the soil as the basis of agriculture, plants and animals and 

 their ascent from simpler forms to those that are more 

 complex, all can find a place in such a course. So can 

 sanitation, the application of science to community life. 



When we assign to General Science the scope suggested 

 in the foregoing paragraph, the need of it in the first 

 year of the High School course is self-evident. This is 

 true even if we confine ourselves to the staple High School 

 curriculum of a decade ago. But when we remember 

 that this curriculum has been immeasurably enlarged by 

 the introduction of short courses, business courses, do- 

 mestic science courses, agricultural courses, and of voca- 

 tional guidance in all courses, the demand for adequate 

 first-year science instruction becomes imperative, and 

 the argument for its introduction overwhelming. The 

 question that remains is: "Can such a General Science 

 course be given to large, first-year High School classes, 



