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 NATURAL SCIENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 
 
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 There are two leading views of the object of teaching natural sciences, one of long t 
 standing and the other of more recent growth. According to the former, the aim of 
 such teaching is to furnish material knowledge and give the student a certain amount 
 of practical training for making that knowledge effective in business affairs. The 
 later idea is to supply a general intellectual training, so as to lit students to acquire 
 knowledge for themselves. As in practical life ability to acquire is preferable to 
 simple possession, so in intellectual matters the same preference exists, but in a 
 greater degree. Moreover there is so much to be taught, while the time at our dis¬ 
 posal is very limited, that a just selection of subject matter is extremely difficult, 
 particularly since scholars of the present age often have not decided what occupation 
 they will follow, and, even when they have made a choice subsequent events fre¬ 
 quently change all their plans. Aside from this consideration, moreover, if the only 
 point were to impart to young students a definite amount of useful information com¬ 
 mitted to memory, it would be better to furnish them at once with books of reference, 
 which are more reliable than memory and which would also cost the state less than 
 the employment of teachers. Besides, the memory is so much exercised in other 
 ways, and other departments of instruction make such heavy demands upon it, that 
 it ought not to be too heavily burdened by an additional amount of scientific study 
 in which an effort is made to learn a variety of things, names, and classifications 
 
 that only arouse curiosity for the moment and soon deaden intellectual activity. Of 
 
 • • • • *" 
 course one gets on faster with a child by carrying it, but it is J$r_the.child’s interest 
 
 to teach it to run and to swim by itself. In the same way it is better not to give young 
 jscholars scientific knowledge ready made, but to teach them the way to it. By im¬ 
 parting to them results obtained by others the ideal purpose of instruction is seriously 
 prejudiced, the sense of scientifically accurate thinking is destroyed, the belief in 
 authority is increased instead of checked, and the mind becomes surfeited instead of 
 finding pleasure in the exercise of its powers. 
 
 This partly explains why high school teachers often prefer those of their scholars 
 who have received no scientific education to those who have received an ill taught 
 smattering of it. But the success of systematic scientific studies in high schools 
 would be much greater, and above all much more certain, if the students had 
 been previously well and methodically taught in the preliminaries in intermediate 
 schools. If such a strict, methodical mental training is omitted in the intermediate 
 schools its loss can hardly be supplied in the high schools. 
 
 A certain amount of fundamental knowledge is of course necessary to the student, 
 but this is gradually gained by practical exercise in elementary work in natural 
 history, using meanwhile as material for instruction in such study familiar objects 
 and the more noticeable phenomena of daily occurrence instead of rarities and curi¬ 
 osities. Such knowledge is also more firmly fixed in the mind by observation than 
 by memorizing alone. Natural science is an experimental science, and the beginner 
 must follow the path marked out by it in order to reach the same end. This he 
 must do not by laboriously committing to memory the material of his knowledge as 
 recorded in books, but by learning it through his own observation. It should not bo 
 
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•''acquired in a systematic but in a methodical way . 1 Teachers, and particularly those- 
 who are beginners in their profession, often make the mistake of trying to teach 
 their scholars the advanced knowledge of their own college studies, and of supposing 
 that fifteen year old boys are able to digest matter in a concentrated form which 
 they themselves could only master at the university after numerous demonstrations. 
 They forget that young pupils have not sufficiently developed ideas for such instruc¬ 
 tion, and that consequently they ought not to proceed with them from the general to 
 the particular, that is to say, according to the analytical method, but should first 
 establish a foundation of individual observations which can finally be united synthet¬ 
 ically into a general idea. 
 
 Starting from these general considerations the following method of science teach¬ 
 ing is proposed: 
 
 In such instruction the first thing necessary is practice in observing and in the 
 use of all the senses for that purpose. Gymnasts, painters, and musicians teach us 
 that constant practice alone brings the muscles to obey perfectly the commands of 
 the will, and the same is true of the senses. Not every one who can see sees care¬ 
 fully and accurately. And herein lies the superiority of the trained observer, that 
 he has learned to notice the numerous forms and appearances of things so that he at 
 once sees in them a great deal which others do not see at all. 
 
 This constant exercise in carefully observing objects of study should of course be 
 progressive from the easy and simple to the difficult. At first individual things are 
 to be studied by themselves, care being taken not to select objects from too limited 
 a circle; not to confine the attention to mammals for instance while studying the 
 animal kingdom, but to take examples from all classes and divisions of nature. After¬ 
 wards comes a comparison of these things previously studied separately, so as to 
 bring out their resemblances and differences. This leads finally to a bringing to¬ 
 gether of all the things observed, the pupils being confined to their own observations 
 and making from them a general summary, or what may be called a system. In the 
 higher grades of secondary schools it is indispensable to point out' that the princi¬ 
 pal systematic ideas (such as species, genus, &c.) are always obtained by T this sum¬ 
 ming up into one idea of scattered facts of observation. 
 
 Since plants offer the most abundant material for study and also early attract the 
 attention of children, it is well to-begin the course of instruction with them and pro¬ 
 ceed to the study of animals later. The examination and determination of minerals 
 are subjects much more difficult to learn. Although the forms of minerals are much 
 simpler than those of plants or animals, yet the beginner will find it much more 
 difficult to tell the normal from the accidental in them than in other cases, as well 
 as to be able to detect the regular or normal forms of one and the same mineral 
 when disguised by accidental causes. Moreover, before mineralogy can be success¬ 
 fully taught, students must have some knowledge of physics, chemistry, and stere¬ 
 ometry. However, every scholar should be induced to notice how various kinds of 
 minerals and rocks present themselves in mass in his own neighborhood, and learn to 
 know them. By what they will have learned so far of natural science young students 
 will have reached as a material result of their studies a development of the sense of 
 form, an enlargement of their knowledge of material things and of their ideas about 
 them, and the perception that the earth is a whole made up of interdependent indi¬ 
 vidual parts. 
 
 In the next, higher grade, training in observation should be directed towards mak- 
 
 1 By systematic instruction the author means teaching the general principles or ‘-laws ” which are 
 the results of generalizing from individual observations, without showing how these general juin- 
 ciples were reached. These “ laws ” or principles when classified and arranged form systems. By 
 methodical instruction, on the other hand, he means teaching the mode of reaching these general prin¬ 
 ciples, viz, by bringing together into one genei-al idea a sufficient number of isolated observations. 
 This is the inductive method, and he insists upon first instructing science scholars in this way before 
 Xjermitting the use of the reverse operation, viz, deduction from the laws ” so obtained to individual 
 cases. This deductive method he also calls analytical. 
 
5 
 
 ing comparisons of the different stages of development of the same organism, that is- 
 to say, the pupils should commence the study of natural history. At the same time, 
 in studying the changes which bodies experience under the influence of such forces 
 as do not affect their nature or substance, the domain of physics is reached. Subse¬ 
 quently, because more difficult for beginners, comes instruction in observing the 
 mutual changes of their substance which bodies exert upon each other by which 
 their nature is radically altered, and here begins the study of chemistry. By thus 
 leading the pupil in an orderly manner to observe the various changes to which bodies 
 are subject, an idea is obtained of the real meaning of the word “nature” (from 
 nasci, to be born) as expressing something which is constantly and forever springing 
 into being and constantly changing into new forms, so that the scholar learns to 
 think of nature as a whole moved and quickened by internal forces. 
 
 Hand in hand with observation goes discipline in describing the things observed. 
 One single observation accurately made is of more value than a thousand anecdotes 
 and illustrations,with which many teachers believe they ought to enliven their instruc¬ 
 tion. It is not the teacher, however, but the scholar who ought to make the de¬ 
 scription of the things under observation, that is, the things he has himself observed, 
 not the things with which he has burdened his memory without observation. Accurate 
 description (with drawings, if possible) serves as a check upon the inaccuracy of the 
 observations, and besides gives students a correct comprehension of words with 
 which they are already familiar, or by leading them to look up new terms enriches 
 their vocabulary and develops a versatility in the use of language, particularly if the 
 teacher is strict in limiting them to the use of general terms. Practice in giving 
 definitions should be undertaken at the same time. This kind of scientific teaching 
 would be a capital aid to instruction in the mother tongue, and In a way for which 
 there is no substitute; for here there is a kind of direct translation out of nature 
 into one’s own speech. In fact there are in this case neither words nor forms of sen¬ 
 tences to start with, and the authority and help of dictionaries are wanting, so that 
 the student has to rely upon himself and must acquire a good degree of independence in 
 giving his ideas. The objection that the same end could be reached by the ordinary 
 instruction in the mother tongue as an accompaniment to natural science teaching is 
 not a sound one, because the teacher of languages is unfortunately too often destitute 
 of the necessary material knowledge, and is often also ignorant of the methodical way 
 of schooling the mind which should be followed in teaching the natural sciences. Of 
 course this practice in giving clear descriptions would follow the progress of the sub¬ 
 ject matter taught — from the easy to the difficult — and the selection of material for 
 this reason also ought to he varied as much as possible. After scholars have learned 
 to understand the accurate significance of words by the method above sketched out 
 they will be better qualified to convey their own ideas in a simple and clear way to 
 others, and also understand more fully the meaning of what is said to them, a faculty 
 of the greatest importance in practical life as well as an essential requisite of educa¬ 
 tion in general. 
 
 Instruction in natural science should also be a training in thinking. Pupils should 
 be led to form general ideas or laws from the objects of study and the phenomena pre¬ 
 sented to them, to draw conclusions upon the causes pf such phenomena, and predict 
 the future action of the causes they have learned to know. In this way not only a 
 knowledge but also an understanding of nature is reached. If the young student is 
 led to reflect upon the meaning of the most commonplace natural phenomena, to in¬ 
 vestigate them himself and compare them together (as, for instance, the form, color, 
 and smell of flowers, the color, coverings, and structure of fruits and seeds, the form 
 and color of the organs of animals, &c.), he will find that while advancing in knowl¬ 
 edge the tediousness of having to learn is done away with and pleasure takes its 
 place. As the material result of this side of teaching natural science, the convic 
 tion will spring up in the mind of the pupil that all phenomena are governed by 
 fixed, eternal, and unchangeable laws. 
 
6 
 
 To what lias been said should be added a few words about teachers, school books, 
 methods aud means of teaching, inspectors, and natural history collections, &c. 
 
 The teacher of natural science ought to have the necessary special scientific school¬ 
 ing for that purpose. In no department of instruction is it less permissible to teach 
 authoritatively than in this, and to make it a subordinate branch for a teacher not 
 specially prepared for it is often worse than to provide no scientific instruction what¬ 
 ever ; for the teacher must not only be master of the material he teaches, but ought 
 also to be a model of the intellectual training he tries to impart; he should have the 
 capacity to observe, describe, and reason accurately about the material of study. 
 In order to give his instruction in such a way as to incite his pupils to an interested 
 activity in their studies, it is indispensable for him constantly to try to develop his 
 own intellectual powers further, and continually' refresh them by special studies 
 (which, however, should not be introduced into the school). Not only should every 
 lesson be well prepared, but after every lesson the teacher should give himself an 
 account of the result of his instruction, and, in case of ill success, he should ascribe 
 its cause to himself rather than to his pupils, so as to avoid mistakes in future. One 
 of the commonest faults of teachers is that in order to get on with their pupils as 
 fast as possible they themselves describe the objects or phenomena under considera¬ 
 tion and derive laws from them, instead of allowing the scholars to do so. They 
 predigest, in other words, to a certain extent, the intellectual food which they ought 
 to allow the scholars to attack for themselves, subject to control and correction only. 
 A science teacher should be able to show his pupils how to give graphic reproductions 
 of what they have learned. Whatever drawing might be necessary for this purpose 
 should not however be presented ready made to scholars, but should be drawn by 
 the teacher on the large scale on the slate or board before their eyes. If the 
 teacher, besides his instruction proper, has to furnish the material for study (e. g., 
 plants, &c.), prepare demonstrations, lead excursions into the field, and have charge 
 of the natural history collections of the scholars, it is clear that a great burden is 
 laid upon him, which is all the greater because natural science teaching is by itself 
 more fatiguing than other branches, since it requires the guidance of each individual 
 scholar, and because the attention of the teacher must be divided between the differ¬ 
 ent scholars, the material for demonstration, and the progress of the instruction. 
 
 The natural science school book should be used only as a book of reference in re¬ 
 viewing, as a means of»saviug writing, for recalling to memory the things observed 
 in the course of study, as a help in looking up modes of expression, aud particularly 
 as a general model. It should remain closed while teaching is going on. It ought, 
 above all, to be in every respect up to the times in its subject matter, and while being 
 as brief as possible it should afford an accurate and complete selection of topics. It 
 would be a great mistake if the school book were made a transcript of the course of 
 teaching. It ought therefore to have a systematic and not a methodical arrangement, 
 so that at the end of the course it would serve as a general summary of the observa¬ 
 tions and inductions made by the scholars. It is indispensable for scholars to prepare 
 their own descriptions and drawings and work up their notes in the form of small 
 treatises or dissertations notwithstanding a simultaneous use of the school book. 
 
 Methods of instruction are generally faulty in aiming at a practical training for 
 some business career at a stage where a general training of the mind is the first essen¬ 
 tial, and in attributing too much weight to systematic instruction. The proper 
 plan of instruction is to make at the outset demands which all the scholars can meet, 
 and not to lead a few qualified scholars to a higher mark. The real master is 
 the one who restricts the scope of the labors of his pupils but is able to bring theu^ 
 all to the limit he has set. By placing his requirements upon them too high he antici¬ 
 pates the aim of the higher schools, and the indigestibility of the material dulls the 
 minds of his pupils and disturbs the quiet development of their thinking powers, or 
 a too early maturity makes them indifferent to further effort. 
 
 In this department of instruction no repeating from memory things not observed 
 
l>y tlie students themselves and no mere reproduction of school hook information 
 should he asked for either in the examinations or hy inspectors. Stereotyped ques¬ 
 tions and answers give no satisfaction, hut the aim should he to have the scholars give 
 answers to the questions asked them in their own language, and not that of their 
 teachers or school hooks. The inspector should look not so much at the variety of 
 information the scholars possess as at their ability and skill in acquiring knowledge. 
 It is not so desirable for scholars to know many things as to thoroughly master and 
 consider from all sides the limited amount of knowledge they have already acquired. 
 Moreover, the inspector should see to it that the phenomena of every day life and the 
 common objects of nature are used as material for practice in observation. Instead of 
 permitting scholars to report upon out-of-the-way things which they have never seen 
 themselves, he should see whether they know how to treat objects, whether known 
 to them or new, which they have actually observed. He will have occasion to notice 
 that very often a scholar who makes an excellent showing where his knowledge has 
 come from memorizing without observation, is unable to recognize an object sub¬ 
 mitted to him even if he has already described it from the text book. Acting upon 
 the hints above given, inspectors are recommended to notice how text books are used 
 in teaching, how the demonstrations are carried out, whether and in what way the 
 material and verbal errors of the pupils are corrected by the teachers, whether teachers 
 make their pupils speak only in general terms, and finally what sort of dissertations 
 or treatises the scholars have made aside from the text book. 
 
 It is clear from the foregoing that every school ought to be provided with a col¬ 
 lection of material and apparatus for demonstration. Too much demonstration should 
 not be allowed at one time, but no lesson ought to pass without laying before the 
 scholars the things which they are studying. Every scholar should be furnished with 
 a good lens for studying more closely very small objects. This lens will also prove 
 useful in many ways in after life. 
 
 It is advisable to begin instruction in scientific observation with plants, because 
 every scholar can bring with him into school a perfectly good specimen of some of 
 the numerous plants about him. The species to be studied must be carefully selected 
 from the great number at disposal, so as to make a beginning with the simplest and 
 plainest forms, and bring in representatives of all the principal groups of the vege¬ 
 table kingdom. It would be advantageous in this connection to select specimens of 
 useful and poisonous plants for study, whereby the sentiments of those who demand 
 a practical tendency in scientific teaching would be regarded. Inasmuch as instruc¬ 
 tion in botany is limited to summer, plenty of fresh material is always at hand. But 
 it is necessary for the school to have a herbarium of the plants and vegetable products 
 of the region, so that at the general review later in the year the scholars can have 
 furnished them whatever details they may have forgotten. 
 
 As a rule specimens of animals and minerals cannot be brought into the school room 
 by the scholars, nor can every scholar be provided with a specimen. In such cases 
 one illustration must serve for demonstration for the whole class, and it cannot be 
 too large, too well drawn, and too distinct. Moreover, the school can have a toler¬ 
 ably large collection of the commoner kinds of insects, snails, &c., kept in small 
 glass cases that cau be distributed to the scholars during the recitation. Of such ani¬ 
 mals, plants, and apparatus as cannot be provided in their natural condition, the 
 school should have as large and attractive representations as possible. In addition 
 to these natural objects, apparatus, and pictures, some technical, microscopical, and 
 anatomical preparations should be added, and, if possible, an aquarium, some house 
 plants, &c. This collection need not be large and cumbersome, for a small but good 
 selection of as striking and consequently of as interesting specimens as possible, pref¬ 
 erably of our most ordinary domestic species, will be of the most service and least cost. 
 Such a collection should only contain representations for illustrating the principal 
 systematic groups, the colors and forms of animals at different stages of life and sea¬ 
 sons of the year, and for showing the relation bet ween form, color, and abode of ani- 
 
mals. A few exotics would serve to sliow tlie differences between organisms of other 
 lands and of our own. The collection may also contain specimens of plant® and ani¬ 
 mals of technical importance, ani mal and vegetable products, the important parts of 
 animals and plants (such as fruits, skeletons, skulls), animal dwellings, Ac. Arti¬ 
 cles sent to schools by private individuals in order that posterity may read thqjiames 
 of the donors on the labels generally serve no useful purpose and take up* valuable 
 space. 
 
 It would be a good plan for the proper authorities of the canton to make lists of the 
 articles needed at each school, make it obligatory to supply them, and inform the 
 teachers where they can obtain them of good quality and at the least cost. If pur¬ 
 chases were made in common the collectiohs could be obtained at a much less cost. 
 The expense should not deter the boards from making such purchases, for these means 
 of teaching are just as important to schools as the other appurtenances, such as the 
 school-houses, the benches, Ac. At any rate the teachers themselves, with the aid of 
 their scholars, friends of the school, hunters, foresters, farmers, &c., can add to the 
 collection many instructive objects without any expense of money. In this way the 
 complete natural history of evary locality can be illustrated. And such a collection 
 will be of scientific value, particularly if it is properly arranged and named with the 
 help, perhaps, of kindly disposed scientific men, and in this case it will aid the scholars 
 in arranging their own collections. For these purposes, and in order that it may be 
 a constant source ot instruction, the collection should be always accessible, if not in 
 the school room itself, where it would be exposed to dust and dirt, at any rate in an 
 adjoining room well lighted and provided with neat glass cases for containing the 
 specimens. 
 
 Natural history teaching would be greatly facilitated if the scholars were compelled 
 to make small collections of their own — not formal museums, but limited collec 
 tions of typical specimens of the commonest plants,, animals, and minerals of the 
 neighborhood, especially of such objects as have been studied and can be easily pre¬ 
 pared by the scholars themselves (this would exclude all stuffed animals). Such col¬ 
 lections could, of course, be enlarged by articles brought by relatives or friends who 
 have tra velled abroad, or which might even be purchased occasionally for trifling sums. 
 Any one object in such a collection (e. g., a leaf or a specimen of a mineral) can be repeat¬ 
 edly figured by the scholars from different points of view, and so give occasion for the 
 habit of a thorough, many sided study of even a common thing. At the same time 
 these collections give practice in determining (classifying) and arranging specimens. 
 They afford recreation to the whole body, and particularly to the eye, which has to 
 accommodate itself to distance while collecting in the open air, and so finds relief 
 from the close attention of the school room. So, also, if scholars prepare the boxes 
 and cases for preserving their specimens, they acquire dexterity and adroitness. 
 This kind of work, which requires much time, may be put off until vacation in order 
 not to interfere with other branches of study. The school will aid the plan of hav¬ 
 ing scholars make natural history collections by planning little excursions, placing 
 utensils and apparatus for making the collections at the disposal of the scholars, and 
 permitting them to determine and arrange their collections in the school museum 
 with the help and under the control of the teachers. The latter must take care that 
 making collections does not become a rage with the pupils, and all tendency to cruelty 
 must be checked. 
 
 Objections to this practice of making collections, on the ground that it requires too 
 much time, money, and labor, and turns scholars away from other branches of study, 
 are unfounded. The recreation it affords renders scholars all the more willing to turn 
 to other studies with fresh invigoration. Parents also who at first look askance at 
 this mode of study soon become favorably disposed to it as soon as they find out how 
 decidedly it sharpens the perceptions of their children, develops their capabilities, 
 increases their enjoyment of life and of nature, and also has a healthy moral effect in 
 taking them away from fatiguing parades and other more hurtful pastimes. Every 
 
teacher who understands howto direct the activity of his scholars in this respect into 
 good p „ths will earn the thanks of their parents and their own in later years. 
 
 For the purpose of illustrating the manner of collecting pointed out in the discourse 
 a model of a collection made byscholars of different schools was shown the assembly. 
 Every school should have such a model. It consisted of— 
 
 (1) A morphological herbarium and a collection of fruits and seeds made by a scholar 
 of the first class of the canton school in Aarau. 
 
 (2) A small zoological collection of a scholar of the second class of the canton school 
 in Aarau. 
 
 (3) A collection of models of crystals in gypsum made by a scholar of the third class 
 of the canton school in Aarau. 
 
 (4) A mineralogical collection made by a third class of the canton school in Aarau. 
 
 (5) A small local geognostic collection made by the scholars of a fourth class of the 
 canton school in Aarau. 
 
 (6) Models of a mineralogical, rock, and geognostic collection for a secondary school, 
 which with some modifications might be collected by scholars of the third and fourth 
 classes. 
 
 All the collections are of such a character that they can be of excellent service to 
 the school in natural history studies. Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 6 are in suitable chests made 
 by the scholars, and every collection is in a specially constructed box so that it can 
 be packed up and shipped with safety. 
 
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