To try to teach the elements only "incidentally" as they are applied
is to fail to see them in their relations, and therefore to fail in
understanding them. Intensive studies by way of filling in the
details may well be in part incidental. But systematic superficial
introductory work is needed by way of giving pupils their bearings
in the various fields of science. The term "superficial" is used
advisedly. There is an introductory stage in the teaching of every
such subject when the work should be superficial and extensive. This
stage paves the way for depth and intensity, which must be reached
before education is accomplished.
HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE
Having no elementary science in the grades, one naturally expects to
find in the high school a good introductory course in general science,
similar in organization to that suggested for the elementary stage.
But nowhere is there anything that even remotely suggests such a
course. Students who take the classical course get their first glimpse
of modern science in the third or fourth high school year, when they
have an opportunity to elect a course in physics or chemistry of the
usual traditional stamp. No opportunity is given them for so much as
a glimpse of the world's biological background. Those who take the
scientific or English course have access to physical geography and to
an anemic biological course entitled, "Physiology and Botany," which
few take.
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