PREFACE Xlli 



was the reason for this? " This method of socializing the recita- 

 tion should prove a powerful stimulant for sharpening the student's 

 powers of observation. If, after these lessons have been pursued 

 for a few weeks, the students begin to tell the teacher that they are 

 enjoying the course in science more than almost any other of their 

 courses, he should not be surprised, for has not a great portion of 

 the course been drawn from the students' actual experiences of every- 

 day life? 



That students have graduated from school with very little knowl- 

 edge of the interesting facts of their environment, all too little ability 

 to understand the simple phenomena of nature, and little if any 

 desire to examine into the causes of these phenomena, is a regret- 

 table fact. If the course in Elementary General Science which has 

 found such universal favor in the first year of our high-school course 

 shall serve to introduce the pupil to a better understanding of the 

 simple facts and fundamental principles of natural laws, and shall 

 also be successful in cultivating in the pupil a desire to know more 

 about his environment, this course will have found a very definite 

 place for itself in the curriculum of the public school. 



DANIEL R. HODGDON. 



NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, 

 February 1st, 1918. 



