Science-Teaching in the Schools. 897 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
BY WM. NORTH RICE, 
[Continued from page 774. ] 
pe many who concede theoretically the desirableness of the 
study of natural science in the lower schools, maintain that 
the practical dificulties in the way of its introduction are insuper- 
able. It is objected that we have no competent teachers, no ade- 
quate material facilities, and no time in the already crowded curric- 
ulum. Science-teaching in the lower schools, it is said, belongs to 
that far-off millennium 
‘“ When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are 
furled,— 
when a constitutional amendment has abolished alcoholic fermenta- 
tion, and made vice forever impossible,—when governments, no 
longer compelled to support military, naval, and police forces, can 
spend the bulk of their revenues on education,—when eyery pri- 
mary school can have a well-equipped laboratory, museum, and 
observatory,—when every primary school teacher is a Ph.D. of a 
German university,—and when a reformed orthography has added 
about three years to school life, by obviating the necessity of spend- 
ing that time in learning to spell. I believe, however, that the 
reform is thoroughly practicable. My own official duty, as a mem- 
ber of a college faculty and of a city school board, has required a 
careful study of all parts of the educational curriculum in a thor- 
oughly practical spirit. And I should regard the general discus- 
sion I have given as of little value, unless I could propose some 
definite and practicable measures. 
The most serious difficulty i in the introduction of natural science 
into the lower schools is undoubtedly the lack of competent teach- 
ers. That the mass of our teachers are incompetent for any very 
high quality of science-teaching, is a truth as unquestionable as it 
is melancholy. That much of their teaching will be merely book- 
ish,—that much of it will be so blundering that the scholars will 
have a good deal to unlearn,—is very certain. This difficulty has 
