minutes; biology, 300-324 (usually 315) minutes; chemistry, 275– 299 and 300-324 (usually 280 and 315) minutes; physics, 275-299 and 300-324 (usually 280 and 315) minutes.

Since high-school class periods are usually 40 or 45 minutes in length, this corresponds to the facts that the more common time allotment per week for the first two sciences in this list includes five 45-minute periods, while for the remaining sciences it includes

*Includes time for supervised study.

† Reported in two cases as providing time for supervised study.

seven 40- or 45-minute periods or, as has already been shown, three 40- or 45-minute recitation periods and two 80- or 90-minute laboratory periods. This means (1) that the two sciences that in practice are distinctly first-year subjects usually have a smaller total amount of time devoted to them than the courses more commonly appearing later, and (2) that this time allotment is equivalent to that which is almost universal in such academic courses as are constituted in no part of work in a laboratory. However, the

practice of making a time allotment per week of five 40- or 45minute periods, i.e., total time allotments of 200 and 225 minutes, respectively, is not limited to these earlier sciences, as it appears also, although proportionately less frequently, in subsequent

courses.

Special inquiry was made into the matter of time allotment per week in general science. It was found that in but 6 of the 19 schools from which reports have come are separate periods provided for recitation and laboratory work, the recitation and laboratory work in the remaining schools both finding place within the same period. In one of the 6 schools reporting separate periods they are provided during the second half of the course, while in another the teacher reported that there was "no set rule," the nature of the work in hand determining this period arrangement from day to day. In the remaining 4 schools the total weekly time allotment is three single recitation periods and two double laboratory periods. Thus, although laboratory work is reported by all teachers of general science, it is the usual practice to include it with the recitation within the same class period.

Table XLV shows that some schools make considerably more than the modal allotment of time. Although this practice appears in all the sciences, it is more common with chemistry and physics.

As indicated by the footnotes to the table, a number of schools report that they provide time for supervised study. The time alloted ranges from 15 minutes in a few schools to a full 60-minute period on recitation days in a few others. As this information is volunteered by the teachers, it is probable that if investigation had been made it would have been found that a larger proportion are following this practice.

DEVIATIONS FROM PLANS OF TEXTS USED

The teachers were asked to report important deviations they make in their courses from the plans of the texts or the syllabi used. In discussing the responses to this question it should first be mentioned that the proportion of teachers reporting the use of syllabi

in addition to the textbooks is so small, and that when they are reported they are so frequently syllabi prepared by authors to accompany their textbooks, that they may be all but disregarded in the bearing they may have in the matter of course organization. A few reporting the use of syllabi name outlines prepared by state authorities. Thus it is the deviations which the teachers report that they make from the plans of the texts and not the syllabi used that really concern us here in the question of the organization of courses in science.

The facts as to such deviations have been classified as far as feasible and are presented in Table XLVI. A large proportion of

TABLE XLVI

DEVIATIONS FROM THE PLANS OF THE TEXTS USED IN COURSES IN SCIENCE

*As some teachers report more than a single type of deviation the addition of the number appearing under the several rubrics will be found, except in the case of physiography, to show an excess over the total number of responses to the questionnaire.

teachers have reported that they make no important deviations from the plan of the text. To these we may add the even larger proportion who make no answer to the question. The classifications made of the deviations reported include omissions, additions, changes of order, and other deviations, among the last-named being counted those kinds of deviation of which relatively small numbers appear.

It is needless for the purposes of this chapter to reproduce here all the deviations which all the teachers report for the several courses in science. The responses for all the sciences will be illustrated

by those that were made by the teachers of chemistry, the course in which there seemed to be the largest proportion of most significant departures from the plan of the text. Eighteen of the teachers of chemistry report that they make no such deviations. To these we may add, on account of the almost universal practice of the teachers to answer conscientiously all questions in the inquiry blank, the 21 others who make no answer to this question. We have classified 5 of the deviations reported as omissions, 25 as additions, 9 as changes of order, and have left 18 responses unclassified. Under "Omissions" have been placed such answers as: "abbreviation" of some parts of the text, "omit gas laws," "do not plan to cover as much ground," and "portions omitted"; under "Additions": "additions in theory," "include some practical work" (this or a similar answer, e.g., "some chemistry of cooking," "some pure food work," "food and water analysis," etc., are made by 17 teachers), reading of magazines to follow recent contributions to the text, "introduce lecture-room experiments quantitative experiments― special themes and problems," "four weeks of qualitative analysis" at end of year, "civic aspects" given attention, etc.; under "Changes of order": "valence later," "change order widely," "slight change in sequence," "put naming of equation, problems, valence very early," "take up molecular and atomic theory earlier"; under deviations designated as "Others": "third quarter given over to domestic science and analysis," "adapt experiments to fit equipment and conditions," "much written work," "last half-year text used for reference only," etc. When one recalls that a very large proportion of the teachers of chemistry report no deviations whatever and when one bears in mind that the deviations just quoted are representative of those reported, he is not long in coming to the conclusion that relatively few important deviations from the plans of the texts used are made by teachers of chemistry. That is to say, the textbooks used determine in all but a small proportion of schools the organization of the courses in chemistry. If we now revert to the statement made above that chemistry is here being used to illustrate the extent of deviation because it is the course in science in which there seemed to be the largest proportion of most significant departures, it may be said that not only in courses in

chemistry, but in all science courses here under consideration, does the textbook determine the organization in all but a small proportion of schools.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE IN GENERAL SCIENCE

Twelve of the 19 teachers reporting on the organization of courses in general science signify that these consist of brief elementary treatments of various sciences. The sciences so used and the number of teachers reporting them are as follows:

The remaining 7 teachers signify that their courses consist of topics each of which may use materials from several sciences. This distinction is no doubt reflected in the organization and content of the textbooks used, since what has been presented above under the head of "Deviations from the Plan of the Text Used" points to a general procedure of following, without important departures, the plan of the text.

THE COURSE IN BIOLOGY

The courses in biology seem to range between two extremes of type: (a) one in which the course is constituted of two distinct parts, one of zoölogy and the other of botany, and (b) one in which the course recognizes no such division and is taught as a coherent whole. To the former belong those half-dozen schools in which the teachers report that a certain number of weeks, usually a halfyear, is devoted to one subject and the remainder of the year to the other. One of this group reports 12 weeks each devoted to biology, botany, and human physiology. In these schools two textbooks are reported, one for each division of the full course. To the latter extreme belong those 7 schools that report no division of time and that also report the use of a single textbook in general biology. Most of the 4 remaining schools probably follow a practice between these two extremes, since they report the use of separate texts, as