The Relative Value and Extent of Scientific and Literary 

 Teaching in a High School Course 



J. C. HAMBLETON 



In the preparation of a course of study for our High Schools 

 it is necessary to bear in mind that there are two classes of 

 pupils to be served, those who expect to continue their studies 

 in some university and those who will not, at most, more than 

 finish the High School course. Of these two classes the latter is 

 far the more numerous and consequently the more important 

 and should receive the greater attention. Usually they are the 

 children of the middle classes and have parents whose opposition 

 has had to be overcome before they are permitted to complete 

 the High School course. It is for this class it seems to me we 

 should endeavor to build a course of study, such that it will best 

 fit them for the life that they will, by force of circumstances, be 

 obliged to lead. 



High school pupils are not all alike any more than are their 

 parents. The child very early manifests the likes and dislikes 

 that are to control its actions during life, and wise is the teacher 

 or parent who is able to discover these tendencies and develop 

 rather than attempt to destroy them. This then is ample reason 

 for having a varied course of study wherever this is possible. 

 Then, also the pursuits of men today are exceedingly varied, and 

 to follow them successfully makes necessary many different kinds 

 of preparation. Our colleges and universities have already 

 learned this and now we see that almost every human occupation 

 that requires knowledge and skill in its pursuit is taught in our 

 institutions of higher education. 



But the question is, shall this same latitude in the choice of 

 studies be allowed in our high schools? Is it true, as some con- 

 tend, that nothing but a few years of literary training will give a 

 person that culture which is so essential to the true gentleman? 

 Or, can he study the sciences and acquire that same mental 

 ability that the study of the classics is reputed to give him ? Will 

 the time ever come when the study of Physics or Chemistry or 

 Botany will occupy as prominent a place in our curricula as that 

 which is occupied by Latin today? 



