Scientific and Literary Teaching in High School 251 



While we all may recognize these facts, none can but 

 acknowledge that the so-called scientific teaching in our high 

 schools is in a chaotic condition. In fact, I think the principal 

 objections to the science work is due to the fact that very often 

 the classes are in charge of some one who has not been trained to 

 do the work properly. How often do we find such classes thrust 

 upon some one who has no natural aptitude or liking for the 

 work, because there is no one else to take them. Not less fre- 

 quently are such classes brought into ill repute because the 

 teacher who has charge of them is not given the facilities that 

 the proper pursiut of the study requires. Too often is it the case 

 that the teacher of some branch of scinece in which laboratory 

 work is essential, and without which it is but a memory exercise, 

 is called upon to do as many hours actual teaching in the class 

 room as the teacher of Latin or Mathematics, and then if he fail 

 to obtain the results that are expected of him, either he or the 

 study has to bear the blame when neither is at fault. 



Then again the proper pursuit of such studies as Botany, 

 Chemistry and Physics requires a more or less expensive outfit, 

 which school authorities are often loth to give. But they too 

 are advancing with the times and we now see the high schools in 

 many small towns and even villages equipped with more ade- 

 quate chemical and physical apparatus than that possessed by 

 our largest high schools of fifteen or twenty years ago. 



The march of progress is irresistible and the tendency of the 

 times is unmistakable. The rapidity of its advance will be 

 measured by the ability of our science teachers to bring order 

 out of chaos. We must decide upon what is the best course for 

 our high schools and then work for its universal adoption. Again 

 we must not forget that the course of study does not make the 

 school. Perhaps in no other department is the teacher so large 

 a factor. Our universities should at all times be on the look-out 

 for men and women who seem to have peculiar fitness for teach- 

 ing these studies and encourage them to take up high school 

 work. Pure scholarship and wide learning, while desirable, are 

 not the most essential qualities of a good high school teacher. 

 Take for instance, the teacher of Botany, He can find no text 

 book to put into the hands of his class to which he can adhere 

 closely. He must go to Nature for his text book, and have 

 the ability to select such types for study as will give his pupils a 

 lasting knowledge of the vegetable kingdom. He should be so 

 well acquainted with the local flora that he can give his pupils an 

 intelligent answer in regard to any specimen they may bring to 

 him. He need not be a speciahst on Mosses nor Fungi, but he 

 should be able to tell one of these from the other and point out 

 to his pupils the essential differences between them. He should 



