June 24, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



981 



if the work can be made to follow a mathe- 

 matical model, so problems come to take 

 an important place. The work becomes 

 quantitative and is now held to develop 

 thought, originality and logical reasoning. 

 But the problem in elementary chemistry 

 is usually of type form, and is not the 

 teacher largely sponging on the power 

 drilled into the pupil by the mathematics 

 teacher? The English of the schools is 

 criticized by college and business men 

 alike. I believe a clear, concise exposition 

 of phenomena in correct language will be 

 of more benefit to the pupil than any num- 

 ber of problems in chemical arithmetic. 



The pupils I have in mind are the ordi- 

 nary ones in large schools, thirteen to six- 

 teen years of age, girls and boys. Only a 

 small percentage will go to college, some 

 will go to business, some to be clerks, some 

 home makers, some teachers. They have 

 been herded in elementary schools, taught 

 at in bulk. They are deficient in English 

 and any correct notions of the activities 

 of the world. It is the business of the 

 high school to supplement the elementary 

 school and by its specialization correct the 

 errors of the grades and systematize the 

 instruction. College preparation is only 

 incidental. 



A large amount of knowledge is not 

 needed in practical life so much as the 

 power to do things, but knowledge cer- 

 tainly increases power. While we must be 

 able to do one thing well even a super- 

 ficial knowledge of many things is not to 

 be despised. Good judgment, ability to 

 arrive at accurate conclusions from given 

 data is most essential, but if we look closely 

 a large part of what is commonly called 

 reasoning is but rehearsing of formula. 

 Good judgment can not be taught. So few 

 of our pupils will ever be so situated that 

 they need reason independently concern- 

 ing chemical phenomena that it is scarcely 



justifiable to foist the time and cost of 

 such instruction on the public. 



"WTiere and how can chemistry accom- 

 plish the most good in the school? If the 

 object of education is to develop a youth 

 most completely, to make a well-rounded 

 individual, to make him feel an intelligent 

 interest in the activities of the world, it is 

 not necessary that each factor in such a 

 total should be well rounded. A number 

 of smooth, well-rounded sticks will make 

 a very insecure bundle, but if some of the 

 sticks are somewhat rough the bundle may 

 not appear so elegant but it will be more 

 firm. Chemistry touches every phase of 

 human activity. It requires language for 

 its expression, mathematics for its deter- 

 mination, physics for its operation. Its 

 history is the history of the world. 



It would be impossible to find a better 

 subject than chemistry to bind together 

 the school work, to systematically furnish 

 splinters to make the bundle strong. The 

 domestic science teacher, the biology 

 teacher and the physics teacher give some 

 splinters of information which they call 

 chemistry and build their work upon this 

 basis, usually indigestible definitions. A 

 systematic course in elementary science 

 should be placed in the first year of the 

 high school, designed to impart that infor- 

 mation of things and processes we might 

 well expect every one to know. This 

 might be followed later' by a course more 

 thorough. 



We now expect our pupils to specialize 

 as soon as they leave the elementary 

 schools and to prepare for some life work. 

 He or she knows nothing of human activ- 

 ities out in the everyday world, there is 

 practically no place in the school curricu- 

 lum where this is taught. We have trade 

 schools, vocation schools, commercial 

 schools, not to mention others all of which 

 require him to specialize before showing 



