July i, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



lies, not in the system, perhaps, which may be good 

 enough considered as an end, but in the personal training 

 of those who have had these systems in charge. I think 

 it true that educational methods and dicta are among the 

 very last, if we except theology, to yield to the demands im- 

 posed by changing environment. To one cultured along the 

 lines fashionable a decade ago, it becomes a difficult task to 

 change methods and opinions that are the outgrowth of such 

 discipline. The maintenance of courses of study that are 

 either largely classical or mathematical means simply a sys- 

 tem based upon methods in vogue long since. A compro- 

 mise is noted, however, in those schools in which a so-called 

 ■'scientific course" is provided; from this concessisn it is 

 easy to pass to those schools whose work is largely along the 

 lines imposed by physical science. 



This modification — whether it be forced or natural is 

 immaterial — reflects the tendencies of the thought of the 

 day. On all sides, and in all manner of ways, increased at- 

 tention is being given to physical science. The reason is 

 notpast finding out — it lies close at hand. Science enters 

 into the home, social and mercantile life of the world to a 

 degree never before known in the history of mind. It has 

 builded upon a foundation broadly and well laid, because 

 laid primarily with a just appreciation of the physical neces- 

 sities of man. Those who now toil, and no longer with un- 

 requited labor, in the laboratories of the world have felt and 

 still feel the impetus due to the appreciation. Not a law of 

 life, not a condition in the physical environment of men, not 

 a pest that may destroy his stores or his comfort, not a prod- 

 uct of land, sea or air, but somewhere some one is busy work- 

 ing out details, deducing laws, formulating results, suggest- 

 ing utilities. The world is en rapport with works of this 

 sort, and it is by no means uninformed as to their value. A 

 new law of light, a new application of electric force, a new 

 fact in chemistry, a new method of locomotion, these all are 

 heralded as to an expectant community. The world waits 

 for facts such us these, the world expects them. 



The question turns now on the manner in, and the extent 

 to which this tendency is to be recognized in the high 

 school curriculum. It does not need a prophet's vision, nor 

 a sage's wisdom to give the answer. It will be answered on 

 the lines that have reference to the circumstances, duties, 

 and work of life. It were idle to stem the tide even were it 

 desirable. It is not a counter-argument that the term 

 " practical tendency " is accepted at its narrowest meaning — 

 that of bare and specific preparation for professional or busi- 

 ness pursuits. ■ Bat if even such illogical answers should be 

 made, the fact still remains that the high school is the poor 

 man's college. It furnishes the highest education which the 

 major portion of the young men and women of a community 

 can obtain. Who, then, shall say that it should not pre- 

 pare, not alone for right living, which is solely a subordi- 

 nate and moral aspect of the question, but for successful 

 business living ? Why should not the studies pursued have 

 discipline as a means and utility as an end ? We do not 

 believe a thoughtful, intelligent answer can be negative. 

 We ask, then, a modification of the traditional curriculum 

 and the institution — better perhaps to say substitution — of 

 one which has as a prominent feature the culture of to- 

 day. The time has passed when one ignorant of the laws of 

 health and the gross anatomy of the person, ignorant of the 

 chemistry of cookery and the laws of ventillation, ignorant 

 of the dynamics of physical nature and unlearned as well as 

 unskilled in the manipulations of the laboratory, may pose 

 as a cultured man, thojgh his knowledge of wonderful 



tongues and skill in rhetorical or literary art be never so 

 great. " What can you do J " not " what do you know ?" 

 is the question of the hour, and the high school of today and 

 of the future will be compelled to answer the question. Will 

 it do it completely ? Not as at present constituted, nor, if 

 like the barrister, it be bound by the law of precedents, will 

 it ever intelligently answer it. 



Relation to University Requirements. 



To this phase of the subject attention will be but briefly 

 directed. The high school does not exist for the college or 

 the university; it is an end in itself. Its original institution 

 did not contemplate its relations to these institutions as a 

 gymnasium, but appears to have resulted from the more 

 universal methods of gradation of school work. In cities 

 it was learned that the time required to master the elemen- 

 tary studies could be much shortened by rigid system and 

 rigid enforcement of its necessary provisions. Following 

 this it was discovered that students might complete their 

 school life at too early an age. Additional studies were in- 

 troduced, and finally a system involving a secondary educa- 

 tion, formerly confined to private academies and seminaries, 

 became a part of the public school scheme; the high school 

 became a fact. 



There can be no question that popular education did not 

 contemplate the establishment of the high school. To 

 many, and to us, its legal right to exist is questionable. 

 However that may be, the high school has come to stay. 

 It has the support and sympathy of the liberally educated 

 classes, and is not unappreciated by the less fortunate grades 

 in society. So that the problem of its curriculum must be 

 worked out in view of the interest these two classes of society 

 evidence in general education. 



At the end of the scheme of public instruction stands the 

 university. Most, if not all, of the States recognize this 

 relationship, and the curriculum of the secondary or high 

 school is devised to conform to it. We think wisely. Re- 

 cently, in this city, DesMoines, a convention of school- 

 masters discussed this, or a nearly related matter, and the 

 opinion at that time expressed evidenced a condition of be- 

 lief far from unanimity as to the requirements presented by 

 the university authorities. But the university is right in 

 high requirements; right in insisting that secondary instruc- 

 tion be confined to secondary schools; right in assuming 

 that its educational forces are to be exerted along the highest 

 possible lines. Particularly is this true of the requirements 

 in physical science. The proper prosecution of original re- 

 search, which is certainly a university prerogative, the best 

 presentment of modern scientific thought and method, which 

 is the aim of university education, cannot be realized when 

 its instructors are burdened with qdasi-elementary work. 

 So, back upon the high school must fall the work of ele- 

 mentary instruction in physical science. This the univer- 

 sity demands, and this the high school must do. Now, in 

 the appointment of the various courses leading to degrees 

 in the universities, it is noticeable, if decade he compared 

 with decade, that more and more are scientific subjects oc- 

 cupying the fore-ground. More time to science, fewer sub- 

 jects; more stringent requirements, greater opportunity for 

 elections, these are the rule in the modern university and 

 these must be understood and appreciated on the part of the 

 high school. There are few good colleges and no universi- 

 ties of standing which do not now demand at least a year in 

 physics and a year of botany. In most others biological 

 subjects are held as essential, and not a few require a fairly 



