September 19, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



267 



yet, perhaps, at that tender age, germs already ex- 

 isted in you of the talents which distinguish you! 

 In your baby boys, fragile beings as they are, there 

 are incipient magistrates, scientists, heroes as vali- 

 ant as those who are now covering themselves with 

 glory under the walls of Sebastopol. And thus, 

 gentlemen, a theoretical discovery has but the 

 merit of its existence: it awakens hope, and that 

 is all. But let it be cultivated, let it grow, and 

 you will see what it will become. 



Preparation for -war, thecrefore, as well as 

 preparation for the vocations of peace, is in- 

 extricably bound up with the pursuit of pure 

 science — of knowledg'e for its own sake. Wliat 

 would have been our preparation for the war 

 just over if our educational system during the 

 past generation, had been based on the prac- 

 tise of teaching' only the applications of the 

 science of twenty-five or fifty years ago, 

 omitting or even making secondary the ex- 

 ploration of unknovsm fields in every direction, 

 without continually raising the question of 

 utilitarian values. As it was, the avoidance 

 of that error was only partial, and the result 

 of continual persistence on the part of " im- 

 practical " college professors, combating and 

 resisting all manner of pressure and insist- 

 ence on the pursuit of the practical, to the 

 exclusion of the theoretical and fundamental. 



But straight in the face of all this experi- 

 ence, our educators are now confronted with 

 the old demand. Profoundly impressed with 

 the important part played in military opera- 

 tions by the applications of scientific knowl- 

 edge, many of our civil and military officials, 

 men of business, and even educators of 

 narrower vision are insisting that our science 

 teaching shall be wholly or largely confined to 

 the applied phases of the subject: botany, for 

 example, must be restricted to what is called 

 agricultural botany, or to plant pathology, or 

 to preparation for forestry or pharmacy. Let 

 us teach our children how to grow healthy 

 crops; never mind (or make incidental and 

 secondary) investigating and teaching the 

 fundamental principles and concepts which 

 imderlie intelligent and successful practise. 

 Such a program not only loses sight of the 

 difference between mere information and edu- 

 cation (the essential business of schools), but 



will ultimately defeat the very purposes which 

 its advocates have at heart, viz., the efficient 

 preparation of the nation to meet the demands 

 of peace and war. It is a striking illustration 

 of the folly of killing the goose that lays the 

 golden eggs, for it is absolutely necessary to 

 teach something besides the applications of 

 science in the schools if we wish to educate 

 successive generations of scientific investiga- 

 tors, and have any science to apply when the 

 need for application arises. 



Here also, should be emphasized the urgent 

 need of having our courses of study outlined 

 and administered by men of broad outlook and 

 wide sympathies, as well as of deep insight, 

 so that the program shall not be lopsided, and 

 narrow, and disastrously inadequate as a prep- 

 aration of young men and women, not only 

 to take their places in the social fabric in 

 times of peace, but to rise fully equipped and 

 prepared to meet any emergency that may 

 arise — whether of war, or pestilence, or crime, 

 or other disaster. 



For example, something is certainly wrong 

 when the education of a city superintendent 

 of schools has been such as to render him un- 

 able to appreciate the educational values or 

 the social need of any studies except those 

 that happened to interest him in his school 

 days. Of course we must be careful here not 

 to hold the educational system too fully re- 

 sponsible for the shortcomings of its products ; 

 creatures of the Almighty liave been known to 

 come short, in spite of education and favor- 

 ing environment. It is a serious and dis- 

 quieting fact to find the value of botany, zool- 

 ogy and general biology as high school stud- 

 ies, really and apparently sincerely called in 

 question, as is now being done in the schools 

 of Greater New York (and possibly also in 

 other cities) ; especially when the proposition 

 is to supplant them with studies chosen 

 chiefly for their so-called " practical " nature, 

 and from the point of view that the chief 

 function of education is to pass on informa- 

 tion, and the chief duty of public education 

 to prepare boys and girls to secure and hold 

 a position. 



It was very timely for Professor Osbom, in 



