INTRODUCTION 



Science instruction in high schools and in elementary schools 

 is in difficulty. Within the last generation we have seen a 

 remarkable series of phenomena in this matter of science teach- 

 ing in the schools. Following the example of higher institu- 

 tions of learning, and of society at large, the schools began, 

 about a generation ago, to manifest a keen interest in the laws 

 and facts of nature. The schools took up nature study, physi- 

 ography, botany, physics, and some chemistry and zoology. 

 Popular sentiment demanded the introduction of physiology, 

 and a miscellaneous body of science was already in the ele- 

 mentary schools under the head of geography. No one thought 

 for a moment that there could be the slightest question about 

 the value of science courses in the schools. What has hap- 

 pened ? First and most striking is the fact that science courses 

 are not yet properly placed or in any definite way established 

 in the schools. Second is the impressive fact that in an age 

 when science has the right of way everywhere else, in busi- 

 ness, in popular thought, and in our higher institutions of 

 learning, the number of students pursuing science in our 

 high schools is in many departments relatively less than it was 

 ten, and even twenty, years ago, and in the elementary schools 

 the so-called nature-study courses are loudly called in ques- 

 tion by teachers and supervisors. 



It would perhaps be ungracious for a layman to dwell upon 

 this inhibition of science if it were not such a grave fact in 

 school organization. The school administrative officer looks 

 on with wonder and consternation while science specialists 

 fall upon one another in vicious assault. College and univer- 

 sity teachers of science, with a curious lack of logical acumen, 



