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SCmNGE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. IIT. 



Incidentally, however, he gains informa- 

 tion ; and I believe that much more of this 

 is obtained by this means, and that this is 

 much more firmly rooted in the mind than 

 is the case when the main idea is the ac- 

 cumulation of the mere information which 

 anj'one can get from an encyclopedia or a 

 dictionary. 



If we are willing to grant that the earth 

 sciences have a claim for a place in the 

 secondary schools equal to that of the bio- 

 logical and physical groups, the question 

 arises, how shall they be taught ? This is, 

 of course, a question which cannot be 

 answered in a few words. We are con- 

 fronted at once with the difiSculty that the 

 ideal at present seems impracticable. Never- 

 theless, I am going to dwell especially upon 

 the ideal, believing that if this is set, and 

 an effort is made to reach it, more prog- 

 ress will be made than if we are content 

 to be held down to what seems to be prac- 

 ticable. 



This matter is treated mainly from the 

 standpoint of the colleges, though not with- 

 out recognizing the fact that but a small 

 number of the high school pupils enter the 

 college ; but in the belief that what is de- 

 sired by the college is also best for the boy 

 whose systematic education ends in the 

 high school; and also because it seems that 

 the college, by setting the standard, can 

 mould and lead public opinion eveji in a 

 new direction, provided, of course, there is 

 also hearty sympathy and support from the 

 teachers in the schools. If between us we 

 can decide upon something, we can in time 

 carry our point; but if we act independ- 

 ently, and along different lines, progress 

 will be slow, indeed. 



I am certain that I voice the sentiment 

 of most of the college scientific teachers 

 who have thought upon the subject when 

 I say that the prime need in education to- 

 day is some change in the college-entrance 

 subjects which have so long served as 



standards. The world has been progress- 

 ing, and even the college, one of the slow- 

 est of institutions to depart from tradition 

 and precedent, is beginning to take cog- 

 nizance of this. Natural science instruc- 

 tion is demanded by the people who support 

 the schools, and so far the colleges have 

 retarded the proper fulfillment of this de- 

 mand, by so occupying the time of the 

 student with other subjects, that natural 

 science has been possible only in very small 

 doses. The attempt has been made to sup- 

 ply the demand for information, but in. 

 most cases there has been but little more. 



The science teacher of the college alsa 

 needs and asks for more adequate science 

 in the secondary schools. For my own part I 

 am obliged every year to teach college stu- 

 dents the simplest habits of observation, 

 which might better have been learned in. 

 the kindergarten. To turn a boy out into the 

 world trained in Latin, Greek and mathe- 

 matics, and yet unable to use his own eyes 

 or think with his own brain, is not treating 

 him fairly. He is very poorly prepared to 

 compete with the keen, shrewd intellect of 

 some business man whose boyhood days- 

 were spent not in school, but in gaining a 

 mental training from nature on a farm, or 

 from men in that great, heartless school of 

 affairs. To me it seems that the parents 

 are demanding a knowledge of science ; the 

 pupil, whatever his chosen vocation, needs 

 the training, and the college science teacher 

 needs to have his students come to him with 

 a better preliminary training. 



Really valuable discipline in science, 

 properly comparable to that gained from 

 the classics or mathematics, cannot be ob- 

 tained from courses of fourteen weeks each. 

 Nor can it even be gained by courses of a 

 year each. This is one of the points that 

 prevents the science teacher of the college 

 from making progress in his efforts to intro- 

 duce science into the list of college-entrance 

 requirements. He is immediately con- 



