Septkmbeb U, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



331 



yesterday, thougli they may have elements 

 of superiority. A method, for example, 

 which discards entirely the text-book, 

 which does away with recitation, which 

 omits theory, may have some excellent 

 points, but as a whole it is abominable. 



In former years it was the custom of 

 college authorities to state the subject mat- 

 ter and largely the methods to be used in 

 the high school which offered preparatory 

 subjects, and other high schools made their 

 own courses. At first this seems eminently 

 appropriate, for the student must be pre- 

 pared to take up such work as the college 

 offers, at a given indicated point. The 

 college, in that view of the case, rightfuUj' 

 dictated the work for secondary schools. 

 The governing body of each institution was 

 ontirel}' di.stinct from that of the other, and 

 thg only harmonious articulation of the 

 two was the arbitrary 'requisites for ad- 

 mission' to the college, and these dift'ered 

 with different institutions; hence a babel 

 of courses, methods and results. With the 

 growth in the western and central states 

 of state universities, the gulf between high 

 schools and colleges was more easily 

 bridged. But in the east other forces have 

 been at work. Cooperation— the organ- 

 izing of associations for the teaching of 

 history, English, physics and chemistry, 

 associations in which college professoi's and 

 high school teaehei's meet and together dis- 

 cuss methods and formulate systems— has 

 been a powerful factor in bringing into 

 closer imion the two classes of institutions. 

 'Community of interests' is found as de- 

 sirable here as among railroads, and it 

 stamps our science teaching with twentieth 

 century methods. It is a splendid illustra- 

 tion of this harmony that high school 

 teachers are invited to speak on the same 

 platform M'ith college professors and uni- 

 versity presidents, to discuss a common 

 subject. It emphasizes what a few years 

 ago was not so fully recognized, that high 



school teachers as a class are not a whit less 

 conscientious, nor perhaps in a majoritj' 

 of cases less qualified for the work they 

 have to do than are their college brethren 

 for theirs. 



I believe that colleges can not long aft'ord 

 arbitrarily to say, without consultation of 

 secondary school teachers, that just so much 

 ground must be gone over by just such a 

 method, nor can the high school unad- 

 visedh' lay out its course. What can high 

 schools do as feeders of the college ? What 

 ought they to be expected to do? Such 

 vital questions can best be answered only 

 by conference and cooperation; for while 

 the professor may know far more of the 

 objective intricacies of the science, he can 

 not understand as the high school teacher 

 does the subjective emanations from the 

 gray matter of the boy's brain and how 

 best to direct those emanations. What is 

 the history, what the tendency of coopera- 

 tion? 



The first club of chemistry' teachers 

 known to the writer, for comparing meth- 

 ods of teaching, was the Boston Chemistry 

 Teachers' Association, formed in 1891 at 

 the suggestion of Mi.ss Laura B. White. 

 This club has been in existence ever since 

 and continues to hold monthly meetings 

 during the school year at the Girls' High 

 School in Boston. It is an informal club 

 without organization, but it has done much 

 eft'ective work. 



The New England Association of Chem- 

 istry Teachei's was organized in 1898, by 

 about a score of teachei-s of the science. 

 The association has grown to not far from 

 100 members scattered literally from Maine 

 to California. Printed reports of the three 

 meetings per year give full details of 

 papers and di.scussions and are distributed 

 to each member, besides which occasional 

 records of chemical literature, books and 

 articles are issued. So far as known to 

 the writer, this is the oldest, and to" the 



