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 THE ZARNCKE LORARY 
 
 COLLECTED BTi* FRIEDRTCH ZARNCKE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 UJillinm W.. Sagi* 
 
 1893 
 
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Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031423241 
 
flfconograpbs on jEbucation. 
 
 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM NORTH RICE, 
 
 Professor of Geology in Wksleyan University. 
 
 WITH APPENDICES. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 V. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 
 1889. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting of the American Society of 
 Naturalists, held in New Haven, in December, 1887, one 
 entire day was devoted to the discussion of Science-Teaching 
 in the Schools. The pape"r now presented to the public is 
 one of the addresses given to the Society at that time. It 
 has, however, undergone some revision and enlargement 
 since its delivery. It has already appeared in the American 
 Naturalist for September and October, 1888, and is now 
 reprinted with the permission of the publishers of that jour- 
 nal. I take this opportunity to express thanks for their 
 courtesy. 
 
 Two other papers relating to the same subject appear as 
 Appendices in the present publication. 
 
 At the New Haven meeting of the Society of Naturalists, a 
 Committee was appointed "to develop a scheme of instruc- 
 tion in Natural Science to be recommended to the schools." 
 At the meeting held in Baltimore, in December, 1888, that 
 Committee presented a report which was unanimously adopted. 
 That report, here presented as Appendix I., will show that 
 the opinions expressed in the address are, as regards their 
 main outlines, the opinions of the great body of working 
 naturalists and advanced teachers of science. 
 
4 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 In July, 1888, the Board of Education of the City of 
 Middletown, Conn., adopted a new Manual of the Public 
 Schools. The gentlemen with whom I was associated in the 
 work of revision (and particularly the accomplished Superin- 
 tendent of Schools, W. B. Ferguson, A. M.) were heartily 
 in accord with the suggestion that some work in Natural 
 Science should be included in the course in the lower grades. 
 In the Course of Study, as now arranged, instruction is given 
 in Natural Science in all grades of the Primary and Grammar 
 Schools, and a small amount of work in Natural Science is 
 required in the Classical Course in the High School. The 
 directions for the teaching of Science in the Primary and 
 Grammar Schools, and a tabular synopsis of the Courses in 
 the High School, appear herewith as Appendix II. It is not 
 claimed that the Middletown programme is an ideal one, nor 
 that in all its features it would be everywhere practicable or 
 desirable. But it is believed that it will be of interest to 
 some readers, as showing that a course of study in accordance 
 with the general views presented in the address has actually 
 been put in practice in one of the smaller cities of New 
 
 England. 
 
 William North Rice. 
 
 Wesleyan University, May, 1889. 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 r PHE word " schools " is here used in distinction from the 
 ■*■ higher institutions — colleges, universities, arid techno- 
 logical institutes. It will be convenient for us further to 
 distinguish the " high schools " from the lower schools. As 
 here used, the phrase "high school" designates a school 
 whose pupils range from thirteen or fourteen to seventeen or 
 eighteen years of age, and which professes to prepare students 
 for the colleges and scientific schools. 
 
 In considering what should be the course of study in the 
 schools, it is necessary to recognize the distinction in scope 
 and spirit between general and special education. By gen- 
 eral education is meant such education as is intended to 
 prepare a person for the duties of manhood or womanhood, 
 irrespective of any particular trade, profession, or station 
 in life. By special education is meant such education as 
 is intended to prepare a person for some particular trade, 
 profession, or station in life. The courses of study in the 
 schools must be, in this sense, general. We are not to try 
 in the schools to make biologists, geologists, nor chemists. 
 We are not to make physicians, nor engineers, nor lawyers, 
 nor clergymen. Very few of the children in the schools will 
 enter any of these professions; and, of those few, still fewer 
 are aware of their destiny. But all the children in our 
 schools have the expectation of growing up to manhood or 
 womanhood. They will take their places in the ranks of 
 those who earn an honorable livelihood by honest labor, or 
 
 s 
 
6 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 among those whom vice or improvidence 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 unregulated 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 edu- 
 cation, 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 
 child, but it will be the best practicable for the great body 
 of children. To employ private tutors, and adapt the edu- 
 cational course to the supposed tastes or needs of each 
 individual child, is impossible for the poor, and generally 
 undesirable for the rich. The advantage to the child from 
 being in a class of reasonable size, feeling the stimulus of 
 intellectual competition, and learning the truly democratic 
 lesson that only personal merit can win, is worth (except in 
 case of children of feeble health or very peculiar constitu- 
 tion) far more than any advantage which can come from the 
 adaptation of the work of a private tutor to the child's idio- 
 syncrasies. In regard to the necessity of a uniform course 
 of study, the high schools form 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 tech- 
 nological schools, or whose schooling is to be finished with 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 7 
 
 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 disciplinary theory is that the object of general educa- 
 tion is to train the mental faculties, it being assumed that a 
 vigorous and well-disciplined mind is the best preparation 
 for all work that may be required of a man. The practical 
 theory is that the object of education is to furnish the neces- 
 sary information for the guidance of one's conduct in all 
 probable circumstances. Of late it has been recognized that 
 these views are not mutually exclusive, and that a true the- 
 ory of education must combine the two. The shield is both 
 gold and silver. A right education is both disciplinary and 
 practical. 
 
 But this harmonizing of the once hostile theories has not 
 been effected without important modifications of each. On 
 the one hand, the advocates of the disciplinary theory have 
 come to recognize the truth that mental discipline can be 
 obtained not merely from the study of some two or three 
 subjects, but from the study of almost any subject. It is 
 coming to be admitted that, from the disciplinary standpoint, 
 the important question is not what we study, but how we 
 study. The very same mental faculties may be disciplined, 
 and disciplined in ways remarkably similar, in dealing with 
 the most widely different subjects. The reasoning by which 
 the comparative philologist traces the evolution of languages 
 is strikingly analogous to that by which the comparative 
 anatomist traces the evolution of organic structures. On the 
 other hand, the advocates of the practical theory have been 
 compelled to a broader and higher view of utility than the 
 merely bread-and-butter view. The individual man is at 
 once body and soul ; and he comes into relations with the 
 
8 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 material universe, with his fellow-men, and with, that unseen 
 Power wherein nature and man alike live and move and have 
 their being. Whatever may be known or believed with rea- 
 sonable probability in regard to the human body, and in 
 regard to the laws of that material universe with which it is 
 related, — in regard to the human mind, whether as self- 
 revealed in consciousness, or as indirectly manifested in 
 literature and history, — in regard to the Creator, whether 
 made known by the facts of nature, or by a historic revela- 
 tion — all this aggregate of varied knowledge and belief is in 
 the highest and best sense practical, for it all tends to guide 
 the conduct of life. 
 
 The claim of any particular branch of study to a more or 
 less prominent position in the curriculum of the schools must 
 accordingly be tried by a twofold criterion — its power to 
 afford an effective mental discipline, and the practical utility 
 of the information which it conveys. 
 
 It would be obviously a waste of time to discuss the 
 practical utility of the sciences of nature. In this age of 
 steam and electricity — this age of aniline dyes and anaes- 
 thetics and antiseptics — this. age when science is multiplying 
 comforts and conveniences and amenities, stamping out zym- 
 otic diseases, and largely increasing the duration of the life 
 which it beatifies and ennobles — no one is so stupid as to 
 deny the utility of scientific knowledge. 
 
 A few words may with propriety be said in regard to the 
 disciplinary value of the study of the natural sciences, for in 
 some minds still lingers the superstition that no studies are 
 disciplinary except languages and mathematics. 
 / The natural sciences are unique in their power of training 
 /the perceptive faculties. When these sciences are rightly 
 taught, the student is brought face to face with natural phe- 
 nomena, which he is required to observe and describe. The 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. g 
 
 perceptive faculties are not, indeed, the highest of human 
 faculties, but they are by no means to be despised. A 
 student who has learned to observe and describe correctly so 
 simple a matter as the form of a leaf, has gained a power 
 which will be of lifelong value, whatever may be his sphere 
 of professional employment. If the student is required to 
 write descriptions of observed phenomena, there may be 
 gained incidentally-a discipline in perspicuity and precision 
 of expression which will be of no trifling value. 
 
 The natural history sciences afford an unrivaled training to 
 the powers of comparison and classification. Sometimes, 
 indeed, these sciences have been called distinctively the 
 classificatory sciences. They have been (at least since the 
 publication of Darwin's epoch-making work) vastly more than 
 mere classifications. They are truly dynamical sciences, re- 
 vealing the processes whereby organic nature has attained 
 its present state. But they are nevertheless in a very impor- 
 tant sense classificatory sciences. In no other class of 
 subjects has classification been so minutely elaborated. No 
 student can learn to marshal the array of species into genera, 
 families, orders, classes, and sub-kingdoms, as men are mar- 
 shaled in the companies, regiments, brigades, and divisions 
 of a well-disciplined army, without acquiring a more syste- 
 matic habit of thought on any subject which may engage his 
 attention. But the elaborateness of natural history classifica- 
 tion is not the only feature of value in this connection. The 
 student is continually taught to distinguish not only degrees 
 but kinds of resemblance and difference — to distinguish 
 those features of structure which are adaptive, and superficial 
 from those which are typical and fundamental — to distinguish 
 analogies from homologies. No one can learn to recognize 
 the mammalian character of a whale under the disguise of its 
 fish-like form, or to recognize the crustacean character of a 
 
IO SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 barnacle under the disguise of its oyster-like shell, without 
 becoming in general a sounder thinker. 
 
 The sciences of nature afford a valuable discipline to the 
 reasoning faculties. Educators have always endeavored to 
 afford a twofold training in reasoning — a passive discipline, 
 by requiring the student to familiarize himself with examples 
 of reasoning recorded in the works of great thinkers ; and an 
 active discipline, by submitting to the student problems for 
 solution, which, if not new to the human intellect in general, 
 are at least new to the intellect of the particular student. 
 The study of mathematics has always, and deservedly, been 
 highly esteemed for the facilities which it offers for both 
 these kinds of training. But the sciences of nature also 
 have their splendid examples of reasoning. An intelligent 
 study of Darwin's " Origin of Species " is perhaps not inferior 
 as a logical praxis to the study of elementary geometry. 
 Indeed, in one respect the former is superior, for the reason- 
 ing of natural sciences is more nearly akin than that of 
 mathematics to the reasoning of practical life. And the 
 sciences of nature have their problems in which the reason- 
 ing faculties of the student may find an active discipline. 
 Every laboratory experiment should be an exercise in rea- 
 soning as well as in observation. A logical interpretation 
 should be required as much as an accurate description of the 
 phenomena. Moreover, the continual inculcation of the 
 doctrine which is the very key-note of science — the doc- 
 trine that there is no such thing as chance — that all events 
 are linked together in chains of cause and effect — is itself 
 an education in philosophical thinking and in rational acting. 
 
 Not to be ignored is the influence of the natural sciences 
 on the esthetic nature. There are indeed some scientific 
 men — animated cases of dissecting tools and locomotive 
 microscopes — who can contemplate nature without admiring 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. II 
 
 her. But, for most of those whose attention is attracted to 
 nature, her aspect is multiform, and her speech many-tongued. 
 And the devotee of nature's truth is ever delighted with the 
 rich stores of nature's beauty. It is no mere accident that 
 the same generations of mankind that have developed the 
 sciences of nature, have developed two new arts — landscape- 
 painting, aud the poetry of nature. There is inspiration 
 for the imagination, as well as satisfaction for the under- 
 standing, in the contemplation of that far-reaching reign of 
 law which is at once the fundamental postulate and the 
 crowning induction of science. The old myth of the music 
 of the spheres is only a parable of the all-pervading harmony 
 of natural law. 
 
 Nor is the study of science without its wholesome influence 
 upon the moral nature. Science is indeed no patent panacea 
 for human depravity ; but no one can become imbued in any 
 measure with the spirit of science — the spirit of unselfish, 
 courageous, reverent truth-seeking — without some degree of 
 moral uplifting. I believe that a comparative study of 
 biography will show that flagrant immorality has been exceed- 
 ingly rare among scientific men — much rarer than among 
 men of equal intellectual eminence devoted to literature, art, 
 or almost any other pursuit. Literature and art may express 
 and incite the basest passions. Science — truth — is never 
 impure. 
 
 The claim of natural science to a prominent position in the 
 educational course is now pretty fairly conceded in the higher 
 institutions of learning. The most conservative of the colleges 
 are making liberal provision of instructors and of material fa- 
 cilities for the teaching of the sciences, and the student is 
 required or allowed to devote a large share of his time to this 
 class of studies, while numerous scientific schools are open 
 for those students who wish to devote a still larger share of 
 
12 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 their time to scientific study. The case, however, is very 
 different in the lower schools. Somewhat of science is 
 usually taught in the high schools, though not, as a rule, to 
 those who are preparing for college. But in the lower schools 
 there is usually little or no teaching of science. The result 
 is that those whose educational course ends before they 
 reach the high school (the great majority of the population) 
 receive no instruction in science whatever, and those who 
 receive a college education (the destined intellectual leaders 
 of their generation) receive no instruction in science until a 
 very late period in their educational course. This exclusion 
 of science from the early stages of education, and (for the 
 great majority of the population) the consequent utter exclu- 
 sion of science from their educational course is, I believe, 
 the worst feature of our present system of general education. 
 The introduction of science into the lower schools is the 
 educational reform most urgently demanded. 
 
 One important reason for this reform is implied in what 
 has been already said. If any knowledge or appreciation of 
 science is to be generally diffused in the community, it must 
 be by the introduction of instruction in science in the lower 
 schools. Of the scholars who enter the primary school, only 
 a small part reach the grammar school, and a far smaller part 
 reach the high school. When we consider that the "people 
 are destroyed for lack of knowledge" — that the preventable 
 mortality due to simple ignorance of hygienic laws exceeds 
 the slaughter of the bloodiest campaigns; — when we con- 
 sider that not only is the duration of life lengthened, but its 
 comforts and means of higher development prodigiously 
 increased, by scientific knowledge; — when we consider that 
 each man's knowledge or ignorance may not only affect for 
 weal or woe himself and his own family, but may involve 
 results whose ramifications in space and time are beyond our 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 1 3 
 
 ken : — we cannot fail to recognize the importance of providing 
 for all our population the means of gaining some acquaintance 
 with those branches of knowledge on which the welfare of 
 humanity largely depends. 
 
 Another reason for this reform, though less obvious, is 
 perhaps even more important. A sound system of education 
 must take account of the natural order of development of the 
 mental faculties. Nor need we be in any doubt as to what 
 that order is. The perceptive faculties are the earliest to be 
 developed ; later come into activity the powers of abstract 
 thought ; later still does consciousness become reflective, and 
 reveal the world of mind. The attention of a healthy and 
 normally developing child is given almost exclusively to the 
 phenomena of the external world. The questions which he 
 asks his parents and other adult friends (if he has not been 
 snubbed too many times in such questioning) relate almost 
 exclusively to objects of sense around him. There are, 
 indeed, miraculous children who speculate about the nature 
 of the soul almost before they molt the long dresses of baby- 
 hood ; but such children usually die of precocious genius or 
 early piety on the brain, and may therefore be disregarded in 
 any discussion of general education. Young children in 
 process of normal development are what some one has called 
 the Buddhists — "unconscious materialists." They do not 
 disbelieve in a spiritual world ; they ignore it. 
 
 The early development of the perceptive faculties produces 
 in the young child's mind a natural curiosity in regard to 
 sensible objects, and therefore a natural aptitude for their 
 study. There are three ways in which we may deal with this 
 mental tendency. First, we may leave the child's curiosity 
 about the external world to unrestrained and unguided indul- 
 gence. We may let the child run wild through field and 
 forest, chase butterflies, rob birds' nests, and fill his pockets 
 
14 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 with caterpillars. He will grow up a young savage, with 
 somewhat of a savage's field- craft and wood-craft, but with 
 very little of valuable intellectual development. Secondly, 
 we may repress the child's natural curiosity. And, in fact, that 
 is about what is usually done. The child is taught to read as 
 early as possible, and then the idea is sedulously inculcated 
 that reading is the straight and narrow way that leadeth unto 
 intellectual life. The story of Sir William Jones's mother 
 answering all her son's questions with the words, "Read, and 
 you will know," is told with express and implied encomiums 
 upon her wisdom and her son's consequent vast erudition. 
 Verily, the ghost of that good woman haunts our schools like 
 a malignant spirit. The climax of success is reached when 
 the little monk is snugly cloistered with his books, oblivious 
 of the very existence of a world of light and music around 
 him. And, if he grows up to be one of the favored few who 
 are permitted to enter the sacred precincts of the college, and 
 there take up the long-deferred study of nature, he finds too 
 often his powers of observation well-nigh atrophied by long 
 disuse. I speak strongly, because I speak fronf experience. 
 I feel daily that the efficiency of my work as a student and 
 teacher of science is impaired by that vice of early education 
 which repressed, rather than developed, whatever powers of 
 observation nature had given. My professional life has been 
 a perpetual struggle to rid myself of some of the mental 
 habitudes induced by an unnatural education. I have not 
 yet quite freed myself from the influence of Sir William 
 Jones's mother. And what I have felt in myself I have seen 
 in my students. It is worse than making bricks without 
 straw, to teach natural science to college juniors aud seniors, 
 in whom disuse has wrought so complete an atrophy of the 
 powers of observation that they hardly know that there is an 
 external universe. 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 1 5 
 
 Manifestly, the only right course in education is to furnish 
 intelligent and sympathetic guidance to the child's natural 
 curiosity. The study of nature should be introduced at the 
 beginning of the educational course, instead of near its end. 
 It should commence — not in the primary school, but in the 
 nursery, before the child is old enough to go to school at all. 
 A vast deal of knowledge may be smuggled into the child's 
 mind without paying any duty of conscious toil. And such 
 smuggling is forbidden by no laws of God or man. No child 
 is hurt by knowing too much ; though many a child is hurt 
 by learning things in unnatural and unduly laborious ways. 
 Whatever of useful knowledge a child gets while he thinks he 
 is playing, is clear gain. The sentiment, 
 
 "No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en,'' 
 
 . may not be strictly true, but there is at least an important 
 truth in it. 
 
 Some years ago I had the pleasure of a somewhat intimate 
 acquaintance with a boy who, in his third summer, became 
 very much interested' in flowers, or, as he called them, " sow- 
 ers," for at that time his language, besides being very scanty 
 in vocabulary, presented some marked dialectic peculiarities. 
 Having obtained some specimens of the tawny day-lily {Heme- 
 rocallis fulva), he noticed the long, slender bodies in the 
 middle of the flower, and he asked his mother what they 
 were. It seemed almost absurd to be teaching botany to a 
 baby hardly more than two years old; but his mother, having 
 large faith in the general principle that the best way to 
 answer a child's questions is to tell the truth, told him that 
 the things he had found were the stamens and pistil. Of 
 course the baby did not know much about the objects which 
 he examined. It was not time for his brain to be disturbed 
 with matters of morphology and physiology. It was not time 
 
l6 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 for him to learn that stamens and pistils are peculiarly- 
 modified leaves, or that they are respectively the male and 
 female organs of reproduction. But his eyes were often busy 
 that summer in looking for the stamens and pistils in various 
 flowers, and in that simple matter of observation he succeeded 
 quite as well as some college juniors I have seen. And 
 when, in after years, the time came for him to take up the 
 study of botany more systematically, the objects of his study 
 were to him not dim and unreal phantoms, but familiar 
 friends. 
 
 But many who concede theoretically the desirableness of 
 the study of natural science in the lower schools, maintain 
 that the practical difficulties in the way of its introduction are 
 insuperable. L is objected that we have no competent 
 teachers, no adequate material facilities, and no time in the 
 alrtaly crowded curriculum. Science- teaching in the lower 
 schools, it is said, belongs to the far-off millenium, 
 
 " When the war d.uin throbs no lunrer.and the battle-flags are furled," — 
 
 when a constitution r,l amendment has abolished alcoholic 
 fcrinen'ation, and made vice forever impossible, — when 
 governments, no longer compelled to support military, naval, 
 end police for :es, can spend the bulk cf their revenues on 
 educaticn, — when every primary school can lave a well- 
 equipped laboratory, museum, and observatory, — when every 
 primary-school teacher ii a 1'h.D. cf a German university, — 
 and when a re'oimcd orthography has added about three 
 years to school life, ly obviating the necessity of spending 
 that time in learning to spell. I believe, however, that the 
 reform is thoroughly pra< t'cr.bk*. My own official duty, as a 
 member of a college faculty and of a cry school-board, has 
 required a careful study cf til p:irts of the education .1 
 curriculum in a thoroughly practical spirit. And I should 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 1J 
 
 regard the general discussion I have given as of little value, 
 unless I could propose some definite and practicable measures. 
 
 The most serious difficulty in the introduction of natural 
 science into the lower schools is undoubtedly the lack of 
 competent teachers. 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 bookish, — that much of it will 
 be so blundering that the scholars will have a good deal to 
 unlearn, — is very certain. This difficulty has been so 
 strongly felt by many scientific men, that they have despaired 
 of any successful science-teaching in the schools till a new 
 generation of teachers can be raised up. " Better no teach- 
 ing at all than poor teaching," is the principle on which they 
 feel themselves reluctantly compelled to advocate the post- 
 ponement of a reform whose need none can feel more 
 strongly than they. But I believe the worst teaching we are 
 likely to get is better than none. Very poor teaching of 
 science will at least serve to keep before the mind of the 
 child the idea that there is an external world which is worthy 
 of attention and study. Better that many errors should be 
 learned, ih n ih.it the child should grow up without thinking 
 of nature ft r.ll. No habitude of mind that is likely to be 
 generated 1 y roor teaching can be so bad as the habitude of 
 stolid indil'eience which is the natural result of the present 
 system. If we wait for teachers well prepared, before we 
 introduce science-teaching, we shall wait indefinitely. Teach- 
 ers will prepare themselves after a fashion to teach whatever 
 they are required to teach. No way of making a boy swim 
 has ever been found so effective as putting him into the 
 water. 
 
 There are books in abundance (and the number is con- 
 stantly increasing), from which a teacher possessed of a fair 
 
1 8 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 degree of mental activity can get suggestions which will 
 enable her to do a limited amount of science-teaching soundly 
 and well. Paul Bert's " First Steps in Scientific Knowledge " 
 is an admirable guide for teachers of elementary science. 
 Morse's " First Book of Zoology," and Winchell's " Geologi- 
 cal Excursions," are books in which acknowledged masters 
 of science have shown how science may be taught to the 
 young. The series of scientific tracts for teachers now being 
 published under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural 
 History are good, as judged from both the scientific and the 
 pedagogic standpoint. Worthington Hooker's books of sci- 
 ence for children, though now somewhat behind the times, are 
 still attractive and helpful books. And the teacher who cannot 
 find something to interest the youngest pupils in Johonnot's 
 series of natural-history readers, with their delightful blending 
 of fact and fancy, the science and the poetry of animated 
 nature, is stupid indeed. 
 
 The teaching of science in the lower schools can be 
 considerably helped by the teachers in the high schools. In 
 most high schools it is practicable to obtain the services of 
 one or more teachers who have some genuine scientific 
 training. Arrangements can be made whereby these teachers 
 can now and then give a helpful lecture to the teachers of 
 the lower schools, or give to those teachers the best kind of 
 an object lesson by teaching a lesson in science to the 
 children in their schools. 
 
 The summer schools and seaside laboratories afford the 
 means for teachers whose early opportunities for scientific 
 study were scanty, to gain a sound (though necessarily 
 limited) knowledge of scientific facts and methods. The 
 increasing number and the increasing patronage of such 
 institutions is a hopeful sign. They are destined to be of 
 immense service in improving the quality of science-teaching. 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 19 
 
 The second objection usually urged against the introduction 
 of science-teaching in the lower schools is the lack of material 
 facilities. The force of this objection, however, vanishes, 
 when it is considered that no one proposes for the lower 
 schools complete systematic courses in science. Such courses 
 would indeed demand extensive laboratories and museums. 
 But for somewhat desultory lessons on judiciously selected 
 topics in science, whose aim is primarily to cultivate the 
 powers of observation, and secondarily to afford glimpses 
 of the methods of scientific thought, no extensive material 
 facilities are needed. Many of the most important principles 
 of physics and chemistry can be well illustrated with no 
 apparatus except what can be extemporized. A class of 
 tolerably active boys can collect enough material for biolog- 
 ical study as they go along. Many of the most important 
 conceptions of philosophical biology can be illustrated without 
 any specimens which are not everywhere accessible. A boy 
 who has found the elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle, in a cat, a 
 horse, a bat, and a hen, has learned the idea of homology, 
 though he has never compared the arms of a brachiopod with 
 the lophophore of a bryozoan, and never heard of the gastraea 
 theory. 
 
 The third objection usually made to scientific study in the 
 schools — the lack of time in the crowded curriculum — hardly 
 deserves an answer. Let the waste of time and mental 
 energy be stopped, which is involved in attempting studies 
 at unnatural times and in unnatural ways, and there will be 
 time enough. Of all economies, the most important is the 
 most neglected — the economy of mental effort. I believe 
 the introduction of science-teaching in the schools will be 
 felt by the pupils as a delightful recreation, rather than as an 
 additional task; and that the improvement of morale will 
 actually enable the schools to accomplish more in other 
 studies. 
 
20 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 It remains, then, to outline "briefly the work which may be 
 profitably attempted. In the primary schools, and the lower 
 grades of the intermediate, or grammar, schools, the main 
 objects must be to cultivate the power of accurate observa- 
 tion, and to impress the mind with the idea that nature is 
 worth studying. The attempt to teach any systematic body 
 of facts and doctrines, so far as it is made at all, must be 
 strictly subordinated to these more general objects. Hence 
 it is no matter how desultory the lessons may be, if they tend 
 to keep the mind of the child in loving communion with 
 nature. The pupils should be encouraged to collect and 
 bring to school specimens of all sorts of natural objects. So 
 far as time allows, each specimen should be the subject of a 
 lesson. Judicious questioning should bring out all the facts 
 and phenomena which the child has observed or can observe 
 in regard to the specimen. Then the teacher should add 
 something of explanation or information in regard to the 
 object itself or other related objects. And let questions be 
 suggested now and then, which the child and his elders are 
 alike unable to answer. Thus the child will become early 
 habituated to the complementary truths of the transparency 
 and the unfathomableness of nature. He will learn that he 
 can see into nature a little way for himself, but that beyond" 
 his vision stretches a vast unknown. The specimens brought 
 in will be an utterly heterogeneous collection — now a bright- 
 winged butterfly, now a flower, now a plant with insect galls, 
 now a sea-shell brought home from some summer visit to the 
 sea-side, now a lustrous crystal, now a smoothly rounded 
 pebble. All the better. Let the children learn the mani- 
 foldness of nature. It will be time enough later for them to 
 survey the fences of systematic definition which man has run 
 through nature's continuous and illimitable fields. Short 
 excursions in the woods and fields (or in the parks which 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 21 
 
 afford almost the only glimpses of nature to the unfortunate 
 children who are brought up in the great cities), and visits 
 to museums, zoological gardens, and menageries, will be 
 helpful supplements to the work of the school-room. 
 
 Besides the utterly desultory lessons already considered, a 
 beginning may be made in the primary schools in somewhat 
 more systematic teaching. The objects most interesting to 
 children are ' living things — plants and animals. Botany 
 and zoology should accordingly be the principal subjects in 
 the science-teaching in the lower grades. The comparison, 
 drawing, and description of various forms of leaves, will 
 furnish delightful occupation and valuable discipline for the 
 youngest children. A little later the more easy and conspic- 
 uous flowers can be studied, and later still the more obscure 
 and difficult flowers. In zoology, attention should be given 
 not to crinoids and hydroids and infusoria, but to the mam- 
 mals and birds and reptiles and fishes and insects which the 
 children can see alive. In places immediately on the sea- 
 shore, some of the more conspicuous marine animals may 
 advantageously be included. The most common and familiar 
 animals, as cats, dogs, horses, rats, should be first studied ; 
 and rudimentary ideas of homology and teleology and the 
 principles of classification can be developed in the study of 
 these most familiar objects. From mammals the study may 
 proceed in later years to birds, and then to the less familiar 
 lower classes of vertebrates, and later still to arthropods and 
 mollusks. Along with the change of subjects, there will 
 naturally be somewhat of a change of method. There will 
 be less of simple observation and description of external 
 characters, more explanation of anatomy and physiology, and 
 more discussion of general relations. 
 
 In several of the States, laws have been passed, requiring 
 in all the schools instruction in physiology and hygiene, with 
 
22 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 special reference to the effects of stimulants and narcotics. 
 There has been an element of fanatical exaggeration in the 
 philanthropic agitation which has led to such legislation, and 
 some of the books which have been prepared, and some of 
 the teaching which has been done, in obedience to the 
 demand, have not been of great scientific value. I believe, 
 nevertheless, that simple lessons in physiology and hygiene 
 may with great advantage be commenced in the primary 
 schools. It is indeed true that physiology can be taught 
 only in a very unsatisfactory manner to pupils ignorant of 
 chemistry and physics, for physiology is essentially chemistry 
 and physics applied to the complex structures and actions of 
 the living body. But very imperfect knowledge is better 
 than absolute ignorance. And the immense importance of 
 the subject, in connection with the fact that only a very 
 small minority of the pupils will ever reach the high school, 
 more than justifies the attempt to teach some rudiments of 
 physiology in the lower schools. 
 
 Somewhat of physical geography will naturally be taught 
 in the higher grades of the primary, and the lower grades of 
 the grammar, schools, in connection with the general course 
 in geography. It is very gratifying to observe the change in 
 the school manuals of geography within the last few years 
 in respect of the greater prominence given to physical 
 geography. 
 
 In the higher grades of the grammar schools, it may 
 reasonably be assumed that the reasoning faculties are 
 more fully developed than in the lower grades, and observa- 
 tion and description of forms may rightly give place in large 
 degree to studies in which the relation of cause and effect is 
 emphasized. This will be the most convenient period for 
 the introduction of exceedingly elementary courses in physics 
 and chemistry. The pupils who will never enter the high 
 
-SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 23 
 
 school ought to get some rudimentary knowledge of these 
 sciences ; and a like rudimentary knowledge obtained in the 
 grammar school will be of great advantage to the students in 
 the high-school course. Of course, at this stage it will not 
 be desirable or possible to penetrate into the mysteries of 
 polarized light, to enumerate the scores of rare elements, or 
 to discuss the more intricate problems of the chemistry of 
 the compounds of carbon. But it will be possible, in the 
 later years of the course in the grammar school, to learn 
 some of the more important facts and principles in regard to 
 gravitation, the mechanical powers, the simpler and more 
 obvious phenomena of sound, light, heat, and electricity, the 
 distinction between elements and compounds, combustion, 
 the chemistry of air and water, and the properties of a very 
 few of the most important elements and their compounds. 
 
 When the student reaches the high school, he will be 
 possessed of some knowledge of the forms of common animals 
 and plants, the structure and functions of his own body, and 
 the general properties of matter. What is more importan 
 than any knowledge of nature which he may possess — he 
 will have kept himself in sympathetic communion with 
 nature ; he will recognize nature as a worthy object of study; 
 he will know that he can learn something himself by the 
 observation of nature, but that he has learned only an 
 infinitesimal part of what nature has to teach. His concep- 
 tions will be crude, indefinite, inaccurate. His knowledge will 
 require elaboration, systematization, correction. But he will 
 not find the book of nature written in a language whose 
 alphabet he does not know. As he comes to the systematic 
 study of the various sciences, he will not feel that utterly 
 bewildering sense of strangeness with which teachers in our 
 high schools and colleges are now so sadly familiar. In the 
 high school, he will come under the instruction of teachers 
 
24 science rr.AcniyG in the schools. 
 
 possessed of larger knowledge, and supplied with more 
 extensive material facilities. Now then the time has come 
 f.jr systematic teaching of science. Random o' serration r.nd 
 desultory stones cf nature must now five place in large 
 degree to the presentation cf systematise J bodies of Let and 
 theory. 
 
 With the beginning cf the l.igh-school course comes the 
 separation between those v;ho are praprrhig fjr the classical 
 courses in the colleges, rnd tho.e who : xz destined to go 
 from the high' sch id direct'y into practical business Lfe. 
 For the former diss the syitemr.tic fUdy cf scisr.ca nay te 
 mainly deferred until they can enpy the I.rger material 
 facilities afforded by the laboratories, museums, and obser- 
 vatories of the colleges. I believ.-, however, that the com- 
 plete exclusion of scientific studies from the classical courses 
 in most of our high schools ii grea 1/ to \>z regretted. There 
 are three scientific studies which I woulj consider it especially 
 desirable to have required cf both the EnjlLh and the class- 
 ical students in the high schools. 
 
 First in the list I wou d have phaenogamic botany. Than 
 is no study which can conveniently be made to furnLh td 
 admirable a discipline in observation. The material is every- 
 where accessible in abundance. The collection and dissec- 
 tion of the specimens involves no infliction of p.i:i upon 
 sentient creatures. The ddbris remaning after a lesson is 
 comparatively clean, inodorous, . and wholesome. In all 
 these respects phaenogamic botany is better adapted for 
 thorough practical study at this stage than any branch of 
 zoology. The structures which are to be examined in the 
 analysis of flowering plants are also of about the right size 
 to afford the most valuable discipline in accurate observation. 
 The work is neither too easy, nor too difficult. It requires 
 the use of the inexpensive simple microscope, but not the 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 25 
 
 use of the costly compound microscope. A thorough training 
 in plant-analysis at this period of the educational course will 
 afford a mental discipline which can be supplied in no other 
 way. 
 
 Secondly, I would require of all students at this stage the 
 study of human physiology. The immense practical import- 
 ance of this branch of knowledge is a sufficient reason for 
 this recommendation. The outlines of physics and chemistry 
 which I suppose to have been taken in the later years of the 
 grammar-school course, will enable the teaching to be more 
 thoroughly scientific in method than can be the case in the 
 lower schools. And, while the study cannot be made so 
 much of an observational discipline as botany, there is no 
 lack of material for demonstration. Most of the organs of 
 the body present the same general character in other mam- 
 mals as in man. Hearts, lungs, brains, and eyes can readily 
 be obtained from the butchers, and a superfluous cat can be 
 occasionally sacrificed. And, with the various convenient 
 guides to mammalian dissection which have been published, 
 there is no reason why a high-school course in physiology 
 may not be illustrated with a fair amount of demonstration. 
 
 Thirdly, a systematic study of physical geography will be 
 invaluable in giving the student an appreciation of the world 
 as a whole — its unity in variety — unity of law amidst end- 
 less diversity of phenomena. No study so opens to the 
 student's intelligence the language of nature, teaching him to 
 read the lessons written in the ever varying landscapes which 
 he may from time to time behold. 
 
 It is, in my judgment, greatly to be desired that these 
 studies should be included in the requirements for admission 
 to the colleges. As students naturally desire to enter college 
 as early as possible, there is a strong tendency for the pre- 
 paratory schools to exclude from their classical courses 
 
26 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 everything not required for admission to college. The re- 
 quirement of a small amount of natural science by the colleges 
 would greatly favor the progress of the reform in the schools. 
 
 For the students in the high school who are not in the 
 classical course, there should be in addition systematic studies 
 of physics, chemistry, zoology, geology, and astronomy. For 
 them natural science should certainly be a required study 
 during the whole of the high-school course. 
 
 While the study of natural science has been advocated on 
 the twofold ground of its practical and its disciplinary value, 
 it has been assumed in this discussion that these two objects 
 are by no means of equal relative importance in the study of 
 different branches of science or in different periods of the 
 educational course. The study of botany has been advocated 
 especially for its disciplinary value, that of physiology es- 
 pecially for the utility of the knowledge which is acquired. 
 It has been maintained that in the primary school the main 
 objects of the science-lessons must be to cultivate a habit of 
 accurate observation and intelligent appreciation of nature, 
 while in the high school each science should be taught as a 
 systematic body of fact and theory. This leads us to notice 
 the unfortunate truth that the two objects of scientific study 
 are to a certain degree incompatible with each other — that 
 the best methods for mental discipline are not the best 
 methods for the acquisition of information. Undoubtedly 
 the method by which the characteristic mental discipline of 
 scientific study can be most effectively secured, is to put the 
 student as nearly as possible in the attitude of the original 
 investigator — to lead him to infer laws and principles from 
 the observations and experiments which he has made himself. 
 But the path taken by the original explorer of a country is 
 often not the most convenient route for subsequent travellers. 
 And a knowledge of laws and principles in science once as- 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 27 
 
 certained can often be taught in ways far more expeditious 
 and convenient than the method of their original discovery. 
 Moreover, many of the most important conclusions rest upon 
 observations only possible in exceptional conditions of time, 
 place, and circumstance. Every student should learn the 
 laws of definite and multiple proportions, which form the 
 foundation of chemical theory ; but the ordinary student has 
 no time to perform such a number of experiments in quanti- 
 tative analysis and synthesis as would make a sound inductive 
 basis for those laws. Every student should learn something 
 of the phenomena and laws of earthquakes and volcanoes ; 
 but it is impossible to get up an earthquake or a volcanic 
 eruption for a laboratory experiment. It is well for every 
 student to learn something of the conclusions in regard to 
 the action of the stomach reached by the classical observations 
 on poor Alexis St. Martin ; but it is hardly desirable to repeat 
 St. Martin's accident and injury for the benefit of every class 
 in physiology. The right method of scientific education 
 must be a compromise. The most important facts and prin- 
 ciples must be taught by text-books and lectures, in such way 
 as to secure most effectively their being understood and re- 
 membered. But, so far as the nature of the subject and the 
 time and means at the disposal of the teacher may allow, 
 mental discipline must be secured by having the student 
 tread for himself the path of observation and experiment, 
 comparison and inference. 
 
 This difficulty in science-teaching is somewhat relieved by 
 the consideration that a single fact learned by actual observa- 
 tion or experiment serves to render real the knowledge of 
 allied facts made known by the second-hand process of de- 
 . scription, which would otherwise be shadowy and unsubstan- 
 tial. The student who has made a few quantitative determin- 
 ations in chemical analysis, understands the meaning of the 
 
28 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 analyses which he finds in books. The student who has 
 handled the bones of one animal, can read intelligently the 
 description of other skeletons. 
 
 In conclusion, I would most emphatically repeat that a 
 plea for the study of, natural science is not a plea against 
 other studies. All the studies which have a place in the edu- 
 cational course have their place by reason of their capacity 
 to afford sound mental discipline and useful knowledge. All 
 true education is broadening and liberalizing in its tendency. 
 Whatever the special studies which natural tastes or profes- 
 sional plans may lead the student to pursue in the later years 
 of his educational course, or whatever the pursuits in which 
 he may engage after leaving school, he will have learned, if 
 rightly taught, an appreciative respect for all the great 
 branches of study in which the human intellect has engaged. 
 He will not despise the study of languages, bringing him 
 into communion with the great minds of other ages and 
 other nations ; nor the study of language, interpreting the 
 structure and development of earth's myriad tongues. He 
 will feel the dignity of that pure truth which is embodied in 
 mathematics, and will appreciate the immense utility of the 
 applications of mathematics in the ajts of a material civiliza- 
 tion. He will have learned in due time that he has a soul as 
 well as a body ; and will appreciate the study of the human 
 mind, as revealed to the direct gaze of consciousness, or as 
 expressing itself in literature and history. And the double 
 world of sensation and consciousness will disclose its highest 
 meaning, in the revelation of Him 
 
 " Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
 And the round ocean, and the living air, 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man." 
 
 But, whatever sources of light may shed their beams upon 
 his advancing intellect, the first star which rose above his 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 20. 
 
 horizon will never set. Whatever teachers he may listen to, 
 the one whose gentle voice first roused him from the slumber 
 of unconsciousness will never be forgotten. As his first 
 lessons were from nature's teaching, she will have for his ex- 
 panding mind lessons continually new. He will 
 
 " Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 — • — 
 
 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS, 
 
 ON 
 
 SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 The Committee on the subject of Science in the Schools 
 beg leave to report as follows : — 
 
 The vote passed at the New Haven meeting of the Society 
 made it our duty "to develop a scheme of instruction in 
 Natural Science to be recommended to the schools." 
 
 In regard to the general topic of Science-teaching in the 
 Schools, we believe the following propositions fairly formu- 
 late the views which are held by the members of the Society, 
 and which the Society should use its influence to diffuse :* — 
 
 i. Instruction in Natural Science should commence in the 
 lowest grades of the primary schools; and should continue 
 throughout the curriculum. 
 
 2. In the lower grades the instruction should be chiefly by 
 means of object-lessons ; and the aim should be to awaken 
 and guide the curiosity of the child in regard to natural 
 phenomena, rather than to present systematized bodies of 
 fact and doctrine. 
 
 3. More systematic instruction in the Natural Sciences 
 should be given in the high schools. 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 31 
 
 4. While the Sciences can be more extensively pursued in 
 the English course in the high schools than is practicable 
 in the Classical course, it is indispensable for a symmetrical 
 education that a reasonable amount of time should be devoted 
 to Natural Science, during the four years of the high-school 
 course, by students preparing for college. 
 
 5. An elementary (but genuine and practical) acquaintance 
 with some one or more departments of Natural Science 
 should be required for admission to college. 
 
 Believing that the propositions stated above will command 
 general acceptance, we are aware that there must be differ- 
 ence of opinion among the members of our own Society and 
 among intelligent educators in general, in regard to details, 
 and that the precise subjects to be introduced into the curri- 
 culum must vary somewhat with the circumstances of different 
 localities. We offer the following, not as necessarily the best 
 scheme, but as a reasonable and practical scheme which may 
 at least serve to illustrate the general principles which we 
 have formulated. 
 
 In the primary schools, and in the lower grades of the 
 grammar schools, we would recommend that the study of 
 plants and animals should be the main part of the scientific 
 work. The botanical instruction should commence with 
 such simple exercises as drawing and describing different 
 forms of leaves, and should gradually advance to the easier 
 and more conspicuous flowers, and later to the more obscure 
 and difficult forms of flowers, the fruits and seeds. 
 
 The zoological instruction in the lower schools should not 
 attempt a systematic survey of the whole animal kingdom ; 
 but attention should be directed chiefly to the most familiar 
 animals, and to those which the pupils can see alive. The 
 common domesticated mammals should first be studied, and 
 later the birds, the lower vertebrates, the insects, Crustacea, 
 
32 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 and mollusks. While the range of zoological instruction 
 must be limited as regards the number of forms studied, 
 those few familiar forms should be so compared with each 
 other as to give the pupils, very early, some conception of 
 the main lines of biological study — morphology, physiology, 
 taxonomy. 
 
 Special prominence should be given to the study of plants 
 and animals which are useful to man in any way ; and the 
 teacher may advantageously, from time to time, give familiar 
 talks in regard to useful products of vegetable and animal 
 origin, and the processes of their manufacture. 
 
 Attention should also be given to the more obvious 
 characteristics of the kinds of minerals and rocks common 
 in the region in which any school is situated, and to such 
 geological phenomena as are comparatively simple and easily 
 observed. 
 
 A most important feature of the scientific instruction in 
 the lower grades should be to encourage the pupils to collect 
 specimens of all sorts of natural objects, and to make those 
 specimens the subject of object-lessons. The curiosity of 
 the children will thereby be rationally cultivated and guided. 
 
 The subject of human physiology and hygiene is of so 
 immense practical importance, and so few comparatively of 
 the pupils ever enter the high school, that we regard as 
 desirable some attempt to teach the rudiments of the subject 
 in the grammar, and even in the primary, schools. 
 
 We would recommend the introduction of exceedingly 
 rudimentary courses in physics and chemistry in the highest 
 grades of the grammar school. 
 
 We would recommend as perhaps the most desirable 
 branches of science to be included in the classical courses in 
 the high school, and to be required for admission to college; 
 physical geography, phaenogamic botany, and human physi- 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 33 
 
 ology. The first is suggested as tending to keep alive in the 
 student's mind a sympathetic acquaintance with nature in its 
 broader aspects ; the second, as affording unequaled oppor- 
 tunities for discipline in observation ; the third, as affording 
 knowledge of the greatest practical importance. 
 
 The rudiments of physics and chemistry which we propose 
 for the grammar schools will enable physical geography and 
 physiology to be intelligently studied in the early years of the 
 high-school course. 
 
 For the scholars in the English course in the high school, 
 there will naturally be more advanced and systematic instruc- 
 tion in chemistry, physics, and zoology, and also instruction 
 in geology and astronomy. But the Classical students may 
 with propriety leave these studies until they reach them in 
 the college course. The scientific instruction they will have 
 received in the primary and grammar schools, and the study 
 of the three branches above specified in their high-school 
 course, will be sufficient to preserve that natural and whole- 
 some sympathy with nature, the loss of which is now the 
 main obstacle to the successful study of Natural Science in 
 the colleges. 
 
 Samuel F. Clarke, Williams College. 
 
 William North Rice, Wesleyan University. 
 
 William G. Farlow, Harvard University. 
 
 George Macloskie, College of New Jersey, Princeton. 
 
 C. O. Whitman, Editor Journal of Morphology. 
 
 December 28, 1888. 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 SCIENCE-TEACHING AS PRESCRIBED IN THE MANUAL 
 OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF MIDDLETOWN, CT. 
 
 I. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN 
 THE PRIMARY AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The object of elementary lessons in Natural Science is 
 twofold : to train the observing powers, and to give infor- 
 mation. The former should be especially emphasized in the 
 Primary grades, and the two made about equally important 
 in the Grammar grades. 
 
 The teaching should be chiefly objective. Large, well- 
 defined pictures may be used whenever it is impossible to 
 obtain the real objects ; but it should always be borne in 
 mind that the best pictures are poor substitutes for the 
 objects themselves. 
 
 In the lowest grades the teacher should studiously avoid 
 the use of technical terms whose meaning is unknown to 
 children. The chief object here is, not to teach science, but 
 to train to close and accurate observation, and to stimulate a 
 keen interest in nature. In no grade should special emphasis 
 be laid upon technical terms and classifications, though some- 
 what more attention may properly be given to them in the 
 Grammar grades. , All classifications should, so far as possi- 
 ble, be the result of observation and comparison on the part 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 35 
 
 of the pupils. Let the teacher stimulate, direct, and name. 
 Happy the teacher, and fortunate the pupils, if, in this de- 
 lightful work, the teacher judiciously combines speech and 
 silence. An occasional talk, however, by the teacher, on the 
 subject before the class, is both proper and desirable. Such 
 talks should furnish information beyond the reach of the 
 pupils' observation. 
 
 Every lesson should be carefully prepared. Aimless and 
 irrelevant conversations are profitless. Allow and encourage 
 the freest expression of what the pupils see. Encourage the 
 pupils to collect and bring in specimens. Elicit, by judicious 
 questions, a description of what they have brought. Give them 
 additional information. Jf necessary, postpone the subject till 
 the next day, and learn something about it. 
 
 GRADE I. 
 
 Physiology. — Regions of the body — head, trunk, limbs. 
 Details of external parts. Uses of external organs. Hygiene 
 of the skin — bathing. 
 
 Zoology. — Lessons on common mammals — e.g., cat, dog, 
 horse, cow, rat, squirrel. Let the pupils observe, compare, 
 and describe these animals, as regards their external aspect 
 and habits. Compare these animals with ourselves. Tell 
 stories illustrative of habits of these and other mammals. 
 
 Botany. — Lessons on common plants. Teach pupils to 
 distinguish root, stem, leaf. Compare leaves of different 
 plants, as regards general form, margin, venation. Require 
 pupils to draw and describe leaves of many plants. 
 
 GRADE II. 
 
 Physiology. — The framework of the body. Bones, joints, 
 muscles. Exhibit anatomical diagrams. Teach the pupils to 
 find in their own bodies some of the bones which can be 
 easily felt through the skin. Emphasize importance of cor- 
 
2>6 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 rect attitudes while the framework of the body is rapidly 
 growing and taking shape. Warn against stooping shoulders 
 and crooked backs. The teeth — their forms and uses. 
 Emphasize importance of proper mastication. Necessity of 
 cleaning teeth. 
 
 Zoology. — Lessons on mammals continued. Special study 
 and comparison of limbs of mammals. Let the pupils find 
 the elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle, in the cat, dog, horse, cow, 
 rat, squirrel, and any other mammals of which specimens or 
 pictures may be at hand. Thusteach the idea of homology, 
 though the word should not be used. Compare the teeth of 
 common mammals, and lead pupils to recognize adaptation 
 of different kinds of teeth to different kinds of food. Teach 
 pupils to recognize degrees of resemblance between animals. 
 The cat and the dog resemble each other more than either 
 resembles the horse or the rat. Develop idea of classifica- 
 tion. Lead pupils to recognize characters of carnivores, 
 ungulates, rodents. Most of the mammals with which the 
 children are familiar are included in these three orders. But 
 tell them about monkeys and kangarops and other very 
 different forms of mammals, that they may not suppose that 
 all mammals are so included. 
 
 Botany. — Different kinds of stems — woody and herba- 
 ceous, exogenous and endogenous. By study of numerous 
 examples lead pupils to recognize that exogenous stems usu- 
 ally bear net-veined leaves, and endogenous stems usually 
 bear parallel-veined leaves. Distinguish deciduous and ever- 
 green trees. Let the pupils make lists of each. 
 
 GRADE III. 
 
 Physiology. — Elementary ideas of digestion. Why do we 
 eat? All parts of the body are made of the food which we 
 eat. Food is made into blood, and blood made into all 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 2)7 
 
 materials of the body. But our food is mostly solid, and 
 must be made liquid before it can get into the blood. Dif- 
 ferent substances dissolve in different liquids — e. g., salt in 
 water, camphor-gum in alcohol, iron filings in dilute sulphuric 
 acid. Show these experiments. Body itself must make 
 liquids which will dissolve food. Put lump of sugar in 
 mouth. Mouth fills with saliva, and sugar is dissolved. 
 This illustrates secretion of digestive fluids. But meat will 
 not dissolve in saliva. What does become of it? Show 
 anatomical plate of stomach, and tell about gastric juice. 
 Teach (with use of anatomical diagrams) outlines of anatomy 
 of digestive organs. Show by experiment how much more 
 quickly powdered salt dissolves in water than lumps of rock 
 salt. Teach importance of thorough mastication. Show 
 gizzard of turkey, and explain its' use. But we have no giz- 
 zard ; and hence must not swallow our food whole, as the 
 turkey does. Wholesome and ■ unwholesome foods. Al- 
 cohol. 
 
 Zoology. — Lessons on common birds — e.g., robin, hawk, 
 hen, duck. Let pupils compare these with each other and 
 with mammals. Compare feet and bills of different birds 
 and show adaptation to habits. Continue lessons on homology 
 of limbs. Let the pupils find elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle, 
 in birds. Is the bat a bird? Talks on instincts of birds 
 shown in periodical migrations and nest-building. 
 
 Botany. — Lessons on flowers. Select plants with perfect 
 and somewhat conspicuous flowers. Teach pupils to recog- 
 nize sepals, petals, stamens, pistils. Let pupils describe and 
 draw the parts in a variety of flowers. Study polypetalous 
 flowers first, afterwards monopetalous flowers. Cut open the 
 ovary in large flowers, and show the ovules. Develop the 
 idea that the parts of a flower are altered leaves. 
 
38 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 GRADE IV. 
 
 Physiology. — Circulation. When food has been made 
 into blood, blood has to be carried to all parts of the body — 
 function of circulation. Show by anatomical plates the out- 
 line of anatomy of circulatory apparatus. Let pupils find 
 some of their own veins, and feel pulsation of heart and of 
 arteries in wrist and temple. Respiration. Show difference 
 between inspired and expired air by experiment with lime- 
 water. Burn a candle in a jar, and show that the air in the 
 jar affects lime-water like expired air. Carbonic acid always 
 formed when carbon burns — i.e., when carbon unites with 
 oxygen. Carbon in body and in food. Carbon burns — i.e., 
 unites with oxygen — all over the body. Body runs, like a 
 steam-engine, by burning carbon. Object of respiration — 
 introduction of oxygen, and removal of carbonic acid. Anat- 
 omy of respiratory organs. Hygiene of respiration — dress, 
 ventilation. Respiration in aquatic animals. Show gills 
 of fish, and respiratory movements in living fish. Fish 
 breathes air dissolved in water. Show presence of such air 
 by warming a beaker of water, and so forming air-bubbles. 
 
 Zoology. — Lessons on common reptiles, amphibia, and 
 fishes, — e.g., turtle, snake, frog, perch, pickerel, eel. Let 
 pupils observe, compare, and describe. Continue studies of 
 homology of limbs. How many of these animals have two 
 pairs of limbs like those of mammals and birds ? Notice 
 external covering of these animals. Their bodies are cold. 
 Why? Respiration of fishes. Is the whale a fish? Meta- 
 morphosis of amphibia, as shown in changes from tadpole to 
 frog. Teach characters of the three classes — • reptiles, am- 
 phibia, fishes. Characters possessed in common by mammals, 
 birds, reptiles, amphibia, fishes. Sub-kingdom vertebrata. 
 
 Botany. — The pistil of a flower develops into a fruit. 
 Different kinds of fruits. Seeds. Show the embryo in beans 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 39 
 
 and other large seeds. Plant seeds in pots, and show growth 
 of plants from seeds. Cycle of growth, reproduction, death. 
 
 grade v. 
 
 Physiology. — Nervous system. Analyze the series of 
 actions when a boy puts his hand on the radiator, and finds 
 it too hot. Nervous system a telegraphic system of the 
 body. Brain the central office. Afferent and efferent nerves. 
 Anatomy of the nervous system. Hygiene of the nervous 
 system — stimulants and narcotics. 
 
 Zoology. — Study the lobster. Lead pupils to recognize 
 jointed external skeleton, distinct regions of body, jointed 
 limbs. Trace similarity of structure in feelers, jaws and 
 accessory jaws, nippers, legs, and other appendages, inclu- 
 ding the caudal fin. Cut off edge of carapace on one side, 
 and show gills. Contrast articulate type of structure, as 
 shown in lobster, with vertebrate type, as shown in animals 
 previously studied. Compare diagrams of nervous systems 
 in vertebrates and articulates. Compare the crab and the 
 sow-bug with the lobster. Teach pupils to recognize the 
 common characters which unite these animals in the class 
 Crustacea. Study angle-worms, as illustrating articulate type 
 in much simpler form — body not differentiated into regions, 
 no jointed appendages. Talks on useful animals. 
 
 Botany. — Study more obscure and difficult forms of flowers 
 than those examined in Grade III. Flowers densely aggre- 
 gated, as in sun-flower, dandelion, daisy. Imperfect flowers, 
 as in willow, oak, chestnut. Flowers with open (gymnosper- 
 mous) pistil, as in pine, spruce. 
 
 GRADE VI. 
 
 Physiology. — Briefly review work of previous grades. 
 Special study of the eye. Anatomy of the eye. Illustrate 
 
40 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 formation of image on retina by use of a large lens. Hygiene 
 of the eye. Injury of eye by use of light too strong, too 
 feeble, unsteady, or improperly placed. Cultivation of near- 
 sightedness by bad positions in reading and writing. 
 
 Zoology. — Study common insects, as the bee, butterfly, 
 fly, beetle, squash-bug, dragon-fly, grasshopper. Compare 
 these animals with lobster, sow-bug, and angle-worm, and 
 recognize in all these the common character of articulates. 
 In insects, note the characteristic division of body into head, 
 thorax, and abdomen. Compare wings of insects, as regards 
 number, form, venation, texture. Show scales from wings 
 of moth and butterfly under microscope. Examine the 
 mouth-parts of those insects which are not too small. Sup- 
 plement observation with pictures. Under lens examine 
 eyes of insects. Explain their peculiar structure. Metamor- 
 phosis of insects. Catch some caterpillars in the fall, and 
 keep them in boxes in the school-room. Some of them will 
 probably survive, and appear as moths or butterflies early in 
 the spring. Talks on injurious animals. Show how some 
 animals are useful by destroying injurious animals — e.g., 
 insectivorous birds. 
 
 Botany. — Distinction between flowering and flowerless 
 plants. Examples of flowerless plants — ferns, club-mosses, 
 horse-tails, mosses, lichens, fungi, sea-weeds. Show fructifi- 
 cation of ferns. Show that the distinction of root, stem, and 
 leaf, so obvious in nearly all flowering plants and in ferns 
 and others of the higher flowerless plants, vanishes entirely 
 in fungi and sea-weeds. 
 
 Mineralogy. — Study crystalline form, cleavage, color, lus- 
 tre, hardness, of some of the minerals common in the vicinity 
 of Middletown — e.g., quartz, feldspar, mica, hornblende, gar- 
 net, tourmaline, beryl. 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 41 
 
 GRADE VII. 
 
 Physiology. — Senses of hearing, smell, taste. 
 
 Zoology. — Study the river mussel. Direct pupils' atten- 
 tion to shell (with its hinge, ligament, mantle-impression, and 
 muscular impressions), mantle, gills, palpi, mouth, foot, 
 adductor muscles. Compare this animal with the oyster and 
 the clam. Note that the former has only one adductor mus- 
 cle ; while the latter has the mantle lobes united, forming a 
 sack which is continued posteriorly in the breathing-tubes, 
 or siphons. Examine some pond-snails. These will be found 
 to resemble the preceding in their flabby, unjointed bodies, 
 destitute of internal skeleton ; but will be seen to differ in 
 having a distinct head with feelers, and a spiral univalve 
 shell. Examine shells of some of the sea-snails. Lead the 
 pupils to recognize characters of lamellibranchiata and 
 gastropoda, as classes of the sub-kingdom mollusca. Con- 
 trast the mollusca with the vertebrata and articulata. Give 
 some talks on corals, sponges, and other animals lower in the 
 scale than mollusks. Do not let the pupil suppose that the 
 classes he has studied comprise the whole animal kingdom. 
 Talks on geographical distribution of animals. Give a little 
 idea of geological succession of animals. 
 
 Botany. — Geographical distribution of plants. Uses of 
 plants. Relation of plants to animals. 
 
 Geology. — Gravel, sand, clay. Show that these result 
 from the disintegration of pre-existent rocks. Erosion, trans- 
 portation, and deposition by water. Study gutters and 
 puddles for illustration of action of aqueous agencies. Con- 
 glomerate, sandstone, shale. Show that these result from 
 consolidation of gravel, sand, clay. Visit Portland quarries. 
 Other rocks are sediments not merely consolidated, but crys- 
 tallized by action of internal heat. Study specimens of 
 gneiss and mica schist. Contrast their texture with that of 
 
42 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 sandstone and other sedimentary rocks. Still other rocks 
 have come up in molten condition from interior of globe — 
 e.g., lava, trap. Talks on volcanoes. 
 
 GRADE VIII. 
 
 Physiology. — Review nutritive functions, using elementary 
 text-book. Illustrate subject with a few dissections. 
 
 Physics. — Elementary text book. Illustrate with experi- 
 ments, as much as practicable. 
 
 GRADE IX. 
 
 Physiology. — Review functions of relation, using elemen- 
 tary text-book. 
 
 Chemistry. — Elementary text-book. Illustrate with ex- 
 periments as much as practicable. 
 
 II. Synopsis of the Courses of Study in the High School. 
 
 The studies of this department are arranged in two 
 courses : the General and the Classical. Each course re- 
 quires four years for its completion. 
 
 The General Course is intended especially for those pupils 
 who do not intend to pursue their studies beyond the High 
 School. 
 
 In order to meet, as far as possible, reasonable demands 
 for educational facilities suited to various circumstances, in- 
 clinations, and plans of life, several elective studies are 
 offered in this course. 
 
 Pupils may elect any study indicated as elective for their 
 particular year or for any previous year of the course. 
 
 The Classical Course is especially suited to pupils desiring 
 to prepare for the Classical Course in College. Since the re- 
 quirements for admission to most New England Colleges are 
 nearly the same, no elective studies are offered in this course. 
 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
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46 SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 In the Classical Course, as given in the preceding table, it 
 is undoubtedly a defect that the Natural Science is all put in 
 the first four terms, and the subject is then entirely omitted 
 for the remainder of the four years. It is a sacrifice of what 
 is desirable for what is practicable. The arrangement allows 
 the Greek to be commenced after a sufficient start has been 
 gained in Latin, and to be pursued continuously. It also 
 allows the students in the Classical Course to recite in their 
 scientific studies in the same classes with students in the 
 General Course, thus avoiding the necessity of forming ad- 
 ditional classes in those studies — a consideration of impor- 
 tance in the smaller towns, where the Classical students are 
 few, and the teaching force small. In schools where the 
 number of Classical students is large, so that separate classes 
 for them can conveniently be formed in all the studies, a better 
 arrangement of studies will be practicable. Especially will 
 a better arrangement be practicable, when the Colleges 
 generally require Natural Science for admission, and enforce 
 that requirement as strenuously as the requirement of Greek 
 or of Algebra. It will then not be necessary, in assigning 
 Natural Science to its place in the curriculum, to have regard 
 solely to the convenient arrangement of the courses in Latin, 
 Greek, and Mathematics. But the course as tabulated will 
 show that a step in the right direction is practicable, under 
 existing conditions, and even in comparatively small towns. 
 
New Books on Education. 
 
 I do not think that you have ever printed a book on education that is not worthy to go on any 
 "Teacher's Reading List," and the best list — Dr. William T. Harris. 
 
 Compayre s History of Pedagogy. 
 
 Translated by Professor W. H. Payne, University of Michigan. Price by mail $1.75. 
 The best and most comprehensive history of education in English. — Dr. G. S. Hall. 
 
 Compayre' s Lectures on Teaching . 
 
 Just Issued. Translated by Professor W. H. Payne:. Price by mail, $1.60. 
 The best book in existence on the theory and practice of education. — Supt. MacAlister, 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 De G armo's Essentials of Method. 
 
 A practical exposition of methtods with. illustrative outlines of common school studies. 
 
 Gill's Systems of Education . 
 
 An account of the systems advocated by eminent educationists. Price by mail, $1.10. 
 
 I can say. truly that I think it eminently worthy of a place on the Chautauqua Reading 
 List, because it treats ably of the Lancaster and Bell movement in Education — a very im- 
 portant phase. — Dr. William T. Harris. 
 
 RadestocMs Habit in Education . 
 
 With an Introduction by Dr. G. Stanley Hall. Price by mail, 65 cents. 
 It will prove a rare find" to teachers who are seeking to ground themselves in the 
 philosophy of their art. — E. H. Russell, Principal of Normal School, Worcester, Mass. 
 
 Rousseau s Emile. 
 
 Price by mail, 85 cents. 
 
 There are fifty papes of " Emile " that should be bound in velvet and gold. — Voltaire. 
 
 Perhaps the most influential book ever written on the subject of education. — R. H. Quick. 
 
 Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude. 
 
 With an Introduction by Dr. G. Stanley Hall. Price by mail, 85 cents. 
 If we except Rousseau's " Emile" only, no more important educational book has appeared 
 for a century and half than Pestalozzi' " Leonard and Gertrude."— The Nation. 
 
 Posminis Method in Education. 
 
 Price by mail, J? 1.75. 
 
 The best of the Italian books on education. — Editor London Journal of Education. 
 
 Hair s Methods of Teaching History. 
 
 A symposium of eminent teachers of history. Price by mail, $1.40. 
 
 Its excellence and helpfulness ought to secure it many readers. — The Nation. 
 
 Bibliography of Pedagogical Literature. 
 
 Carefully selected and annotated by Dr. G. Stanley Hall. Price by mail, $1.75. 
 
 Lectures to Kinder gar iners. 
 
 By Elizabeth P. Peabouy. Price by mail, $1.10. 
 
 Monographs on Education. (25 cents each.) 
 D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, 
 
 BOSTON, NEW YORK, and CHICAGO. 
 E. E. SMITH, General Western Agent, - - 185 Wabash Avenue, CHICAGO. 
 
Cornell university Liorary 
 arV16399 
 
 Science-teaching in the schools: 
 
 3 1924 031 423 241 
 olin.anx