THE REORGANIZATION OF HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE. Illinois State Normal University, Normal, Ill. The day has passed when it was pertinent to ask whether high school science needs reorganization; high school science is now being reorganized. While this reorganization has been taking place some of our scientific friends have been so engrossed in the daily routine of teaching science that they have had no time to glance over their spectacles and note the condition towards which high school science is rapidly drifting. Other of our scientific friends, more alert, have seen with unwilling eyes the drift of science but they have held firmly to the traditions of their own high school and college days; they have rebelled against every innovation; they have contended that the charge that much of our high school science teaching is a near failure from the point of view of the boy or girl is heretical and should be suppressed; they have compared those educators who asked that high school science be reorganized to the boy who cried "Wolf" when there was no wolf; they have said: "Leave high school science alone; we admit that the drift is bad at the present, but the organization and subject matter is the best possible; college and university men approve of it; apparent defects are due to poor teaching and we are about to remedy that defect." This laissez faire attitude has been most pronounced in teachers of the biological and earth sciences; teachers of physical science have, as a rule, taken more kindly to the demand that high school science be modified, that it be adapted to the interests of high school pupils and to the needs of modern life. Generally speaking, physical geography, physiology, zoology and botany have been the sciences taught in the first two years of the high school course. The laissez faire attitude of the teachers of these subjects, coupled with the growing conviction. that the reorganization of high school science must begin at the bottom of the high school science curriculum, is now leading rapidly to the elimination of these subjects from the high school curriculum and the substitution of other subjects which are believed by many to be better adapted to the needs and interests of the pupils in the early years of the high school. The extent to which these four science subjects have declined during the past fifteen years especially during the past five years will be seen by a study of the accompanying graphs and Table I. TABLE I. Table showing per cent increase (bold face) or decrease (light face) during the five years from 1910 to 1915 in the percentage enrollment in the high school science subjects. From these data it appears that physics is now nearly holding its own, that chemistry is making slight gains, that physical geography, physiology, botany and zoology are all rapidly losing ground and will soon disappear as high school subjects, or at least they will soon become unimportant subjects in the high school curriculum. It also appears that agriculture and domestic economy are everywhere making rapid gains. It is unfortunate that the reports of the Commissioner of Education, from which these figures are taken, do not show the part which general science is taking in this realignment of high school science.1 It is interesting to note the approximate date at which we may expect physical geography, physiology, botany and zoology to disappear, or practically disappear, from the high school curriculum if their decline continues at the rate indicated from 1910 to 1915. TABLE II. Table showing approximate date at which the science subjects generally taught during the first two years of the high school curriculum may be expected practically to disappear, their places being taken by other subjects. United States Iowa Wisconsin Illinois Ohio Subject Physical Geography. Physiology.. Botany. Zoology. It would probably be erroneous to conclude, however, that high school science as a whole is at the present time declining The High School Supervisor of West Virginia in his report for 1915-1916 gives the total enrollment in high school science subjects in that state as follows: Physics, 831; Chemistry, 992; Botany, 738; Agriculture, 1431; Biology, 2194; and General Science, 1133. A report of the Committee on Science in the High School of Tomorrow, given before the Central Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers, at Columbus, Ohio, November 30, 1917, shows in thirty-six large high schools in the Upper Mississippi Valley, having a total enrollment of 42,107 students, the following percentage enrollment in the sciences: Chemistry, 10.5 %; Physics, 10%; Botany, 4.9%; Zoology, 2.3%; General Science, 7.1%; Physiography, 5.4%; Physiology, 2.5%. if we include as high school science agriculture, domestic economy, general science and general biology. A study of the reports of the Commissioner of Education for the past twenty years, incomplete though the reports are, leads to the conclusion that the total percentage enrollment in high school science subjects did decline from about 1900 to 1910 but from 1910 to 1915 there was a slight increase. An analysis of the nature and significance of these shifts in our high school science curriculum is important. It seems fair to presume that, in a large measure, physical geography and physiology have given place to general science as the first-year-science course. Likewise, it is apparent that botany and zoology have given place to general biology in many schools in certain states and to agriculture in many schools in many states. Domestic economy, without doubt, has displaced the older sciences in many cases. Why were these shifts made? Was it mere caprice, a desire on the part of teacher or pupil, or both, to try something new or different? Or is there a deep-lying conviction held by superintendents, principals, science teachers, and educators in general that the science courses which have been generally offered during the first two years of the high school curriculum are not well adapted to that purpose? The accompanying graphs show that for some years before the advent of agriculture, domestic economy, and general science, all of the old recognized sciences were suffering a rather rapid decline. The truth is that all of the old recognized sciences failed some years ago to command the respect of students of education when regarded as educative materials which would best equip the pupil to take his place as a prosperous and self-respecting citizen in this twentieth-century world. The following five graphs show the percentage of the total number of the public high schools of the United States and in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio which were enrolled in the various subjects indicated in 1900, 1905, 1910 and 1915.2 In a measure, teachers and textbook writers of the physical sciences began to recognize the defects in the methods and Note: The data from which these graphs were made are to be found as follows: Summary for the United States from 1890 to 1915, p. 487, Vol. 2, Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1916. For the various states for 1900, pp. 2138-2139, Vol. 2, Report of Commissioner of Education for 1899-1900. For the various states for 1905, pp. 832-833, Vol. 2, Report for 1905. materials of high school physics and chemistry some years ago. Some of the recent textbooks and considerable of the teaching bear evidence of a conscientious effort to make these courses more practical, more worth while and more interesting to the pupil. While there is unlimited room for further improvement, yet the changes already effected have been partly responsible for the check in the decline in percentage enrollment in these subjects. In rather marked contrast with the attitude of the more progressive teachers of the physical sciences is the laissez faire attitude of many of the most influential leaders among the teachers of the biological sciences. One has but to study the addresses given at the educational meetings of the past fifteen years, to read the articles contributed to our educational journals, and to compare the resolutions adopted by the various biological GEN. BIOL1910 |