14 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
and colleges admitting such graduates permit them to elect still more of language 
and a minimum of science. The problem then becomes, what sciences shall be 
required of those who, having learned to love other subjects, now Bhun science, 
either because they do not know what they lack, or because the small amount 
which they have had has given them the impression that they cannot shine in 
that line of work with a desired brilliancy. Indeed, dislike of science and fail- 
ure at first to excel in it are often due to a complete lack of opportunity which 
has left the student unaware of his own ability, and developed love for other 
studies to the exclusion of science. This unfortunate result will be reproduced 
constantly in such public schools as exclude both nature and science from con- 
sideration in the grades, and, if they present them at all in the high school, 
present them under the guidance of teachers who have themselves likewise 
neglected science. Our colleges must now. and apparently for many years to 
come, have among their students graduates of such smaller high schools, and 
for such students must seek to determine the amount and character of science 
v/hich should be required. 
Permit me to briefiy present a solution of the problem as follows: Besides 
the physical geography which is so commonly taught in the lowest grade of 
the high school, serving as a supplementary course in geography, a pre-requisite 
for history and parts of literature, and also serving as a science, there should, 
for a general education, be required somewhere in a high school or in the early 
part of a college course a study of the facts and the general principles of biology, 
physics and chemistry. 
The work in biology should develop a knowledge of the life around us so 
often overlooked, and a knowledge of the great groups of animals and plants, as 
well as of the laws which biologists have worked out, and the prominent theories; 
in short, it should give the student a general view of this great field of science. 
This can be accomplished with due regard to abnormal sensibility which the 
teacher sometimes discovers in a pupil. 
The work in physics is that work in science now’ most commonly well pre- 
sented in a high school. It should develop a knowledge of the general facts and 
principles of the subject, and a knowledge of their application in our civilization. 
The work in chemistry should open the eyes of the student to the action of 
forces all around us unrecognized by those who have neglected the subject. 
It should reveal to him the facts made use of in our great industries, and present 
the theories concerning the constitution of matter and the laws of chemical 
•change. 
It does not seem desirable to present here a discussion of the importance of a 
knowledge of these three great fundamental lines of study, nor to discuss the 
necessity of laboratory methods, as well as of recitations and of illustrated 
lectures. With a knowledge of these three subjects properly developed the 
student is ready to grasp the meaning of processes which he sees in the indus- 
trial world, and of literature which involves these sciences. Because of study of 
these three fundamental subjects he is the better enabled to study our civiliza- 
tion in a comprehensive manner and to fill the place of a useful and well-in- 
formed citizen. 
With all the important bearings of these subjects they are divergent in their 
relations. Omitting astronomy, which is generally included with mathematics 
rather than with science, there remains one other requirement which should 
follow these courses in biology, physics and chemistry. That requirement is 
