766 Science-Teaching in the Schools. 
ranks of those who earn an honorable livelihood by honest labor, 
or among those whom vice or improvidenee renders a burden to 
society. Those of one sex, by the possession of the right of suffrage, 
and those of both sexes, by their share in that informal and un- 
regulated vote which we call public opinion, will in their degree 
shape the institutions of the land. Most of them will marry, and, 
by the direct effect of heredity, and by manifold influences of 
conscious and unconscious education, will mould the character of 
future generations. All of them must make individually the 
momentous pilgrimage through this mortal life to the solemn 
mysteries beyond, The arrangements of the schools must be 
adapted to the common needs of humanity, not to the peculiar 
tastes and conditions of individuals. There must be one course 
for the children of the rich and the poor, the learned and the igno- 
rant. Such an average course will not be the best for every cnild, 
but it will be the best practicable for the great body of children. 
To employ private tutors, and adapt the educational course to the 
supposed tastes or needs of each individual child, is impossible for 
the poci, and generally undesirable for the rich. The advantage 
to the child from being in a class of reasonable size, feeling the 
timulus of intellectual competition, and learning the truly demo- 
cratic lesson that only personal merit can win, is worth (except 1m 
case of children of feeble health or very peculiar constitution) far 
more than any advantage which can come from the adaptation © 
the work of a private tutor to the child’s idiosyncracies. In re 
to the necessity of a uniform course of study, the high schools fom 
a partial exception. In the high schools it becomes practically 
necessary to provide two courses of study—one for those who are 
preparing for the classical courses in the colleges, the other for 
those who are preparing for the scientific courses in the colleges 
and technological schools, or whose schooling is to be finished with 
the high school. To a limited extent, also, elective studies may 
be introduced into the high school course. 
In the past, two theories have been maintained in regard to the 
proper aim and spirit of a general educational course. The ua 
plinary theory is that the object of general education is to se 
the mental faculties, it being assumed that a vigorous and gy 
disciplined mind is the best preparation for all work that may 
