Apeil 3, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



523 



whence they came or advised to abandon a 

 college career. This plan would not neces- 

 sarily result in the overcrowding of the 

 freshman class with poorly prepared or 

 immature boys, for the consequence to the 

 principal of a high school of having boys 

 thrown back on his hands would be too 

 serious. The character of the work which 

 secondary schools are doing in teaching 

 and training young men should be more 

 fairly judged than is possible by a few 

 days' written examination. Let us hope 

 that some method may be devised, that 

 this may be accomplished and the good 

 work of the schools find more abundant 

 recognition. 



Although the high school offers an ad- 

 mirable preparatory course for college, this 

 course is not its primary object, which is 

 rather to give to boys and girls during the 

 years of adolescence a broader view of life 

 than they are capable of comprehending in 

 the grammar school period, and an intel- 

 lectual stimulus which shall abide with 

 them in after life. 



Many elements enter into its efficiency. 

 The location of the school and the building 

 itself has much to do with it. Bright, large, 

 well-ventilated rooms and cheerful sur- 

 roundings, such as these great new build- 

 ings possess, have a notable influence in 

 promoting good teaching and quick appre- 

 hension. Its efficiency is further closely 

 connected with the completeness of its 

 equipment— its laboratories of chemistry, 

 physics and biology, and its libraries. But 

 far above its material possessions rises the 

 teacher as the most potent influence for 

 good work. My experience is probably not 

 different from many other college officers, 

 in observing that the principals of many 

 poorly equipped schools send boys to col- 

 lege with a uniform stamp of high scholar- 

 ship which many of the richer and better 

 equipped schools fail to equal. 



It is often said that the purpose of the 



school is to make good citizens by giving 

 the pupils a sound foundation of general 

 and useful knowledge and by guiding 

 their young minds in the ways of truth, 

 justice and righteousness. To the idealist 

 in education it is character-building that 

 should be kept in mind in all the teaching 

 and discipline of the school. And when 

 one reads the current educational litera- 

 ture he is almost led to believe that this 

 result can be brought about by purely 

 pedagogical methods, and that the millen- 

 nium must arrive in the course of another 

 generation. In this conception of educa- 

 tion are we not putting on the schools the 

 responsibility which belongs to the family, 

 the society and the church? The instruc- 

 tion which we give our youth in history, 

 civics and ethics is necessary for the in- 

 telligent citizen who wishes to do his full 

 duty in civil life, but it does not supply 

 the incentive to make him do his duty. 

 This is sufficiently obvious, and yet it 

 seems necessary to say it from time to time 

 to tone down the rhapsodies of the theorists 

 in education over the purposes and possi- 

 bilities of public schools. 



Character is the result of heredity and 

 environment. To apportion the relative 

 values of these influences in any case is no 

 easy matter. If a school boy proves in- 

 corrigible it is generally attributed to 

 heredity; if he becomes tractable, to en- 

 vironment — so easily do we let ourselves 

 be persuaded as to the beneficial effect of 

 our influence. 



Three results we have a right to expect 

 from our schools, namely, that the students 

 shall acquire a certain amount of useful 

 knowledge, that they shall become genu- 

 inely interested in one or more of the sub- 

 jects they have been studying, and that 

 they shall learn to think for themselves. 

 The first can be accomplished under almost 

 any system of teaching. Grammar, history 

 and the descriptive sciences can be taught 



