_ OCTOBER 20, 1899.] 
Under this head three papers were read, 
the authors being W. C. Stevens, Lawrence, 
Kansas; Ida Clendenin, Brooklyn High 
School, and Conway MacMillan, Minne- 
apolis, Minn. 
The paper of Mr. Stevens forcibly pointed 
out serious defects in much of the so-called 
botanical teaching, and argued for a study 
of plants rather than text-books merely. 
Miss Clendenin maintained that biolog- 
ical studies were important factors in 
mental development of children, and that 
they should not be postponed till late in the 
school curricula. It was immaterial whether 
zoology or botany was taken up first, but 
that at least an entire school year—four or 
five lessons weekly—should be given to 
them. In addition to this the last year in 
the course should offer one or both of these 
branches as optional studies. As to whether 
the work should be largely microscopical, 
dealing fully with the cell and tissues, com- 
mencing with the lowest plants and closing 
with the representatives of the highest 
groups; or rather making morphology and 
physiology prominent in the course, dealing 
mostly with specimens and material obtain- 
able by the pupils and using the microscope 
only for demonstration; is determined 
mainly by the environments in which the 
teacher finds himself (large classes, exces- 
sive work in the school room, etc.): there 
is no alternative for the great majority, and 
the second scheme must be followed. 
Miss Clendenin rightly insisted that it 
offered as good disciplinary and practical 
work as the first, and that the finer 
methods of the modern laboratory of his- 
tology should be left to the Universities, 
where alone their practice was possible. 
Professor MacMillan’s paper can not be 
condensed and therefore, it is here pre- 
sented as it was read to the Section : 
Te 
Introduction : 
(a) Education is essentially a social func- 
SCIENCE. 
56k 
tion, hence the school is asocial organ. The- 
work of the school must therefore be criti- 
cised not by the individual aptitude or 
abilities of the graduates, but by the intel- 
lectual and moral condition of the com- 
munity in which the school has been active.. 
Sociology, not psychology, is the scientific 
foundation of a true system of pedagogics. 
(6) Society is an organism with moving 
equilibrium, always progressive or deca- 
dent. Progress of individuals is not incom- 
patible with social retrogression. 
It is stated that homicides are on the in- 
crease in the United States. In the light 
of the figures it may well be asked, does 
education educate ? 
(c) What are the fundamental difficul- 
ties with the schools? clearly the same as 
with any complex organ derived by a proc- 
ess of evolution: There are too many vestig- 
ial characters. 
Educational methods arise to meet the 
exigencies of particular epochs, nations or 
localities. After these epochs are past, 
nations extinct or localities abandoned, the 
methods do not likewise disappear but re- 
main petrified in the traditions of the 
schools, to be worn away by the slow at- 
trition of the ages. 
Nevertheless, while I am in favor of 
educational museums, I regret that our 
public schools should ever be such institu- 
tions. 
(d) The modern tendency in school cir- 
ricula is to introduce everything new as a 
concession to the radicals, and to keep 
everything old as a concession to the con- 
servatives. But education is not pursued 
by the race either for the exploitation of 
pedagogical theories, or for the perpetuation 
of traditions belonging to a by-gone civiliza- 
tion. 
The real practical problem is not what to 
put into the cirriculum, but what to take 
out. This deserves the most thoughtful 
consideration. Weare sometimes told that 
