142 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [7 :6— Sept., 1911 



The study of the "humanities," the ideal of "culture" in educa- 

 tion, gave way before the pedagogic outfit of the laboratory and 

 the experimental method, and before the spirit of investigation 

 in pursuit of objective truth. In short, the new education may 

 be said to have worshipped at the shrine of Science- as-an-end- 

 in-itself. 



Presently, however, a new controversy began. In the ranks 

 of the scientists themselves schism arose. While some of them 

 laid main insistence on rigorous training in method, with discip- 

 lined scientific thinking and power of independent research as 

 their objective, others held to the belief that the pupil should be 

 taught to know as much as possible about the world with which 

 he comes in actual contact, and that knowledge, and useful knowl- 

 edge to boot, should be the first aim rather than drill. Pedagogics 

 on the one hand, with its enunciation of the principle that edu- 

 cation should begin with the familiar, not the unfamiliar, and 

 should deal with what is real to the pupil, and philosophic 

 thought on the other hand, with its flat denial of the right of 

 science to call its world more than one aspect of reality and 

 its insistence that the vital thing in life is experience, not an ab- 

 stract from experience, — supported the schismatics. And then 

 came the demands of vocational education. The outcome was 

 the pretty complete discomfiture of the party which would have 

 turned our high schools into incubators of fledgling scientists, 

 trained in methods of research and thirsting for scientific discov- 

 ery for pure love of truth. There is no great crowd of pedagogues 

 now who worship at the shrine of Science-as-an-end-in-itself. 



Culture, disciplined scientific power, useful knowledge, 

 economic efficiency — all these educational ideals aim primarily at 

 the good of the individual. And, as a rule, the education which 

 aims at them is not likely to consider moral training an integral 

 part of its work. But our system of public education at public 

 expense justifies itself only on the ground that the education 

 given serve the public welfare ; and this again leads naturally, 

 if not inevitably, to the conclusion that at least one purpose of 

 such education should be to train in good citizenship. Surely 

 this kind of education means moral education. 



Now I am ready to begin to build up my argument for the 

 right of forestry to a place in general education. 



Dr. C. F. Hodge of Clark University published a little 

 pamphlet a few months ago under the title of "Civic Biology." 



