6 z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The former course in science in the Boston schools having 

 failed, a somewhat radical change of base in such work has re- 

 cently been made. In the first place, the term " elementary sci- 

 ence " is not approved by many teachers who adhere to the dic- 

 tionary meaning of the term. They say that no real science work 

 can be done in elementary schools, and will not admit that ele- 

 mentary science means simple knowing, when used to designate 

 children's acquisitions of knowledge at first hand, but insist on 

 limiting the term to the scientist's elements and organized knowl- 

 edge. They give an unscientific excuse for failing to teach sci- 

 ence in a natural and successful manner. On the whole, " ob- 

 servation lessons" is an acceptable term to use in designating 

 children's work with natural objects. If a mere name be made a 

 stumbling block, it had better be changed at once. 



Now, the course in the Boston schools requires " observation 

 lessons " on the " structure and habits of familiar and typical 

 articulates and vertebrates," including the frog, fish, robin, hawk, 

 hen, duck, cat, dog, pig, rabbit, horse, and cow, in the fifth grade. 

 In the sixth grade the work is continued by observation lessons 

 on "typical and familiar specimens of radiates and mollusks 

 (sponge, coral, starfish, oyster, snail, jellyfish)," and ends with 

 observation (?) lessons on the elephant, whale, seal, cochineal, and 

 ostrich. 



The study of minerals is begun in the sixth grade, as before, 

 but the materials used are common rocks, instead of native min- 

 erals and chemical elements, which are studied in the ninth grade. 



In this radical change from the former course there is an evi- 

 dent intention to depart from the so-called scientific standpoint 

 and approach the child's point of departure ; but those inevitable 

 errors have been made that always attend the laying out of courses 

 on paper before working them out carefully with many large 

 classes of children. 



It is manifest that there can be no proper observation lessons 

 not to mention what commonly pass for science lessons on the 

 whale, the seal, the ostrich, etc., in an ordinary city grammar 

 school. The same may be said of the frog, the hawk, the pig, the 

 cow, etc. Such things can not be brought into the schoolroom 

 with compensating advantages. If pictures are made a substi- 

 tute, the work with them deserves no better designation than in- 

 formation lessons, and speedily degenerates into first-class cram- 

 ming. 



Concessions to the scientists may be seen in the requirements 

 in regard to the structure and classification of articulates and ver- 

 tebrates in the fifth grade, typical radiates and mollusks in the 

 sixth grade, and the order of studying minerals in the ninth grade, 

 beginning with elements and working up synthetically to com- 



