ABSTRACT
The science in the high school that flourished a generation or two ago is best known to us as “natural history.” It does not seem necessary that the natural history of a modern-school curriculum should embody the mistakes and crudities of an earlier phase of the science. The university influence upon the study of science has not been fortunate. Even its power to introduce definite standards has been attended with grave misfortunes. The study of science in the school is neither extensive enough, nor does it grow out of the instincts and interests of the children. While the language of his new social world is that of everyday life, that of the science he studies is a mathematical vernacular, which is not even comprehended without serious effort, and, he is not even allowed to use the language till he has mastered its grammar and syntax.
