Biology in the Secondary Schools of the Central States

Abstract

Secondary education is in a chaotic and unsatisfactory condition. The present curriculum is of mediaeval origin, and fitted more nearly to the needs and possibilities of the education of the leisure classes of the Middle Ages than to the requirements of the productive individual of the present day. A new course of study which shall freely recognize the lifeinterests and activities of the modem citizen, and which shall take the results of scientific discovery of the past one hundred years into large account is demanded. This radical change in our educational programme is of extreme importance from many points of view; it can be brought about only through a stiff fight with established customs, prejudice, and self-interests. The science teachers of our secondary schools are, for several reasons, the ones who must make this fight.