In Exhibit C will be found a proposed revision of the model high school courses submitted by the Committee of Ten, and in this arrangement some attempt has been made to meet the objections previously mentioned.

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Among the changes that may be noted are the substitution of a year of Greek for a year of science in the classical course, thus giving three full years' work in Greek, the introduction of a few hours of elective work in the last two years of the high school courses, a more logical arrangement for the order of the sciences,-chemistry being placed first because of its use in biology, and lastly, physics is placed in the fourth year of the course, so that the pupil may have the benefit of all the previous training in mathematics.

The work in algebra and geometry is increased from four

periods to five full periods per week, so that the two classes may alternate throughout the course, and the courses are further enriched by the study of psychology.

It is an extremely difficult thing to arrange a course of study that will be absolutely perfect or that will meet every objection. Such a task is well nigh impossible. The teacher of Latin in the university demands that five full periods a week shall be given to his department throughout the high school course; the teachers of English, mathematics, modern languages, and the various other departments make similar demands, and if we arrange a course of study in accordance with their wishes, we find ourselves under the necessity of requiring twenty-five or thirty recitations a week of each high-school pupil. This would prove entirely too strenuous for the average boy, and the chances are that he never would attempt to prepare himself for college. To be sure, our high schools should put forth greater efforts to improve their standard, but at the same time our university men must be less exacting and less arbitrary in their entrance requirements. Each should be considerate of the interests of the other, and only through their earnest co-operation can the best results be obtained. Conditions at present are very unsatisfactory, and the ideal is yet to be reached, but let us hope that it is not far distant.

The Study of Animal Life: Its Place in the Public Schools1

PROF. S. J. HUNTER, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

HE Privy Councilor of the Czar of Russia, Prof. F. de Martens, writing on impressions of America after his visit last year, observes in our public schools that "The teachers avail themselves of every opportunity and chance of making their pupils ocularly acquainted with the objects of surrounding life and with the manifestations of nature."2 In a sentence he has given the trend of modern educational methods. Action is being substituted for imitation, the initiative for the imitative.

In the common schools, as in many others, it is frequently self-evident that to master books is the way to become learned, and to become learned is to become educated. This idea is a legacy from the Renaissance. Knowledge in itself forms but a small part of a well-rounded education. Training in methods of acquiring knowledge is more valuable than knowledge itself.

Since the study of animal life is not one of the established courses in many of our schools, the subject may resolve itself into three questions :

1. How can this subject be conducted in a school where the required curriculum does not include it?

2. What is there in the study of animal life capable of furnishing certain fundamental disciplines not readily obtained in other subjects?

3. What is its place and function in our common schools?

A few illustrations from actual experience may answer the first question. A class of boys manifested a decided aversion to grammar. They were more interested in the proper angle at which a pin should be bent to serve best its mission. The

I. Abstract of an address before the general session of the Kansas State Teachers' Association, December 30, 1902.

2. The Independent, Vol. LIV, p. 2870, December 4, 1902.