April 22, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



651 



end about, for the need of the majority is 

 the constant term involved — fairly con- 

 stant, at least, since that need will change 

 only with the slow alteration of environ- 

 ment—while the entrance requirement is a 

 much more variable quantity. Let us ask 

 then: Is not the course in biology that is 

 best for the student who ends his studies 

 with the high school a good and satisfactory 

 preparation for college? 



When the struggle for existence between 

 subjects now contending for place in the 

 school program shall have worked itself out 

 we shall probably know better what is best 

 for the majority 'who go no further.' 

 Now we must needs exercise foresight, 

 while hindsight will be much clearer. "We 

 may gain some hints of things to come by 

 comparing the situation with respect to 

 these newer subjects with the state of those 

 that have reached the end of the struggle 

 and established themselves. The subjects 

 now universally conceded a place in the 

 school program, such as reading, writing, 

 arithmetic, spelling, grammar, geography, 

 etc., stand in marked contrast with some of 

 the newer subjects as respects articulation. 

 These older subjects are orderly, consecu- 

 tive and complete in themselves: the stu- 

 dent drops any of them anjnvhere without 

 loss— with only gain for what he has had 

 — even though, for example, he stop be- 

 tween short and long division. The list 

 of such studies is longer than it once was ; 

 and it may well be that other subjects will 

 come to take their places as essentials when 

 they demonstrate the same degree of edu- 

 cational efficiency and adjust themselves 

 in orderly and progressive sequence. 



It must be admitted at once that at pres- 

 ent there is no biological program. Studies 

 of living things begin in some places in 

 the kindergarten; in some, in the grades; 

 in some, in the high school ; in some, in the 

 college; and in some they do not begin at 

 all. In some they are continuous ; in some, 



interrupted; in most there is little effort 

 at articulation. The unsettled state of 

 our subject is remarkably evidenced in 

 three different ways: (1) The rapid 

 shifts of emphasis as to what shall be 

 taught, (2) the diversity of high school 

 text-books and (3) the indefiniteness of 

 the college entrance requirements. 



1. The shifts of emphasis are due chiefly 

 to the fact that most of our nature study 

 has been handed down from above, instead 

 of growing up from below. High-school 

 and normal-school zoology and botany have 

 too often been handed down ready-made 

 by university professors. In my own high 

 school days it was all systems of classifica- 

 tion they were handing down. In my col- 

 lege days, it was all anatomy; now it is 

 nearly all ecology. It is now hardly more 

 than a decade since many teachers, newly 

 returned from college or normal school, 

 where their zoological training had con- 

 sisted in dissecting a cat, were trying the 

 same course they had taken, without dilu- 

 tion or alteration, on the little innocent 

 children. This did not last long, however, 

 for the body politic is more or less resist- 

 ant to the germs of educational diseases; 

 but it lasted long enough to leave in the 

 mind of the public an unsavory impression 

 of zoology, not yet entirely lived down. 



2. The diversity of text-books is very 

 great, in both subject matter and method. 

 Some of the recent ones are all reading — 

 storiettes about animals and plants; some 

 are all dissecting; some are all keys and 

 descriptions for determining of forms; 

 some are all physiology; some are all ex- 

 perimentation; some are all ecology, and 

 some are admixtures of some or all of these 

 things. This diversity is the result of try- 

 ing to fit one of the most extensive subjects 

 with Avhich the human mind has to deal 

 into one of the smallest niches in the high- 

 school program. Each author appears to 

 have included what he has been able to get 



