HISTORY AND STATUS 
 
 OF 
 
 Public School Science Work 
 
 IN ILLINOIS. 
 
 A PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
 
 By S. A. FORBES, 
 
 Professor of Zoology, University of Illinois. 
 
 l »at*grapn Pig. 6t riUvy. Co., Bloomington, 
 
■*11 
 
 HISTORY RflD STATUS 
 
 OF ' 
 
 Public Sehool Science Work 
 
 iH miii^ois. 
 
 BY S. A. FORBES, PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 [Read before the Science Section of the Illinois State Teachers’ Association 
 at Springfield, December 27, 1889.] 
 
 It is the purpose of this Society, as I understand it, to system¬ 
 atically investigate, discuss, and formulate methods of instruction 
 in natural science, with a view to working out a body of sound 
 doctrine and rational method, in respect to which we shall, if possi¬ 
 ble, become substantially agreed. These doctrines and methods we 
 shall then hope to bring to bear on the public school work of Illi¬ 
 nois, to the end that the science work here may be done, in time, on 
 rational principles well understood, and by methods approved by 
 general experience. It is a work of progress and reform to which 
 we have pledged ourselves; progress in the knowledge of principles 
 and in the method of applying them, and reform in the science 
 work in the public schools under our charge or immediate influence, 
 and ultimately, as we hope, in those of the state at large. 
 
 First of all, it seems to me, we need to clear up our own ideas 
 and to see where we stand; to realize and recognize what we have 
 to do, first for ourselves and second for the state. Your committee 
 has believed that we should begin by laying foundations, and has 
 hoped that the work of successive sessions of this Club would have 
 more than a loose and general connection; that it would be closely 
 
 :p od. 681 . 
 
CO 
 
 articulated and regularly and solidly built up, year after year, jointly, 
 by us all, according to a plan pre-arranged. 
 
 In beginning a work we may very naturally ask ourselves, first, 
 what has been done; and, second, what is next to do,—the answer 
 to the second question dependent on that to the first,—and I have 
 taken it for my part in the present program to prepare a brief out¬ 
 line of the condition of the science work in public schools at the 
 present time; to explain and describe, as well as I can and as far as I 
 understand the matter, the basis upon which it actually rests, and the 
 forces which have built it up and hold it in position, and to sketch 
 the history of its development. I very much wish that this task 
 might be performed in a thorough-going and exhaustive manner, and 
 I hope that this may yet be done by some one; but in the time allow¬ 
 able here for such a discussion I can only undertake to pick out a 
 few items from the record, and to present them, if possible, in a 
 way to make them available for our guidance. 
 
 The history of public school science work in this state is re¬ 
 markable for one prominent and critical occurrence,—the sudden 
 introduction by law, in 1872, of four new sciences into the list re¬ 
 quired for a county teacher’s certificate. Although this legal en¬ 
 largement of the public school course seems at first blush unwisely 
 and even absurdly abrupt, and although it was unquestionably 
 followed by many unfortunate and well nigh disastrous immediate 
 consequences, yet a study of the situation at the time, and of the 
 previous history of the agitation of the subject and of the progress 
 of science teaching in the state, will show that it was not as sudden 
 and revolutionary a procedure as might be supposed. Many incite¬ 
 ments to progress in this direction had long been at work in the 
 public schools. A leaven of intelligence and awakening ambition 
 had made itself felt for many years and in many ways,—through 
 the reports and action of the State Superintendent of Public In¬ 
 struction; through the State Normal School, opened in 1857; through 
 the operations of the State Natural History Society, organized in 
 1858, and including many teachers in its active membership; through 
 the young Industrial School, now- the University of Illinois, estab¬ 
 lished in 1867; and, long before that (in 1850 to 1854), through the 
 remarkable educational campaign which gave origin to the Univer¬ 
 sity; through the more progressive teachers themselves—a few of 
 whom, in city and village schools, were doing science work which it 
 would be difficult to parallel for scope and thoroughness at the 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 present time; through papers and discussions in the meetings of the 
 State Teachers’ Association and the State Associations of Principals 
 and County Superintendents; and through the educational period¬ 
 icals of the day. 
 
 The first State Superintendent, Ninian W. Edwards, had de¬ 
 clared, in 1854, in his first report, that the teachers of the state should 
 have a “ practical education, in which should be included not only 
 what is commonly embraced in the common school course, but a 
 practical knowledge of the sciences in their application to the ordi¬ 
 nary pursuits of life.” 
 
 Dr. Baieman, in his first report, the third of the office, had said, 
 in i 85 o/“The senses are the pioneers of all knowledge. The dawn 
 and activity of the perceptive powers are always antecedent to those I 
 of the reflective. The eye is the child’s first teacher; the ear its 
 next; and for several years the chief work of education is to culti¬ 
 vate these organs.** a^rta* v< Tt is the facts of the outer or 
 
 material world, with which we must first deal, and the formation of 
 habits of close and accurate observation is the great work of the 
 elementary teacher.'** i 8 ^ 4 , behed the teachers e-P'the 
 state-t© "Keep the schools in close and living contact with the ob¬ 
 jective, the real; with nature and men and things; with the whole 
 outer world and its moving panorama of events, as the theatre on 
 which the pupils are to live and move and act ”J In his first an¬ 
 nouncement of requirements for the state certificate, made in 186r, 
 while omitting the natural sciences from the list of branches neces¬ 
 sary for the diploma, he commended especially vegetable and 
 animal physiology, physics, chemistry, and geology, as subjects with 
 which the professional teacher should by all means have some ac¬ 
 quaintance,—without which he must suffer great loss of power. In 
 1868 he foreshadowed the general introduction of the sciences, and 
 directly paved the way for it, by making the state certificate condi¬ 
 tional upon a satisfactory knowledge of physiology, botany, zoology, 
 and chemistry. The new law of 1872 merely extended to the 
 county examination the condition which had thus been for four 
 years applied to that for the state certificate, except that physics 
 was substituted for chemistry. ✓ 
 
 So far, then, as the State Superintendency is concerned, the devel¬ 
 opment of the public school course towards a knowledge of nature 
 and a preparation for science teaching, was a gradual and methodical 
 one, proceeding by slow steps to an end held long and steadily in view, 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 Nor was the share of the first State Normal School in this work 
 of progress an insignificant or indifferent one. Organized in 1857 
 under a law placing the elements of the natural sciences on the 
 same footing as the other studies of its course, it had contributed 
 its powerful influence, directly and indireetly, for fifteen years, to 
 the education of the teaching body towards this end. By i860, 
 physiology, chemistry, botany, and geology were taught,—in a 
 somewhat tentative way, it is true, and each but a term, while 
 mathematics got five terms, geography three, and vocal music nine, 
 —but the attempt was clearly regarded as an experiment. Says 
 Principal Hovey, “We have very few models in this department. 
 Little is known of the possibility of so simplifying chemistry, for ex¬ 
 ample, as to bring it within the reach of children. 
 
 The attempt, however, will be honestly made, at least so far as to 
 put our pupil teachers in possession of the leading facts of these 
 sciences, and the method of teaching the facts to children which 
 seems to have the largest promise of success. The importance of 
 the subjects would fully justify this course, even if it were not com¬ 
 manded by law.” The details of the courses published show that 
 the methods were not those of the modern science teacher,—a criti¬ 
 cism applicable for some time thereafter. Botany was chiefly a 
 study of text and the analysis of plants; the chemistry was ap¬ 
 parently poured over the heads of the pupils like a shower bath, 
 and there was no students’ laboratory for many years; the physi¬ 
 ology was demonstrated to the imagination only; and the physics 
 was taught as a department of mathematics, by deduction from first 
 principles, with a sovereign contempt for apparatus and experiment, 
 not merely implied but vigorously expressed. Zoology was not reg¬ 
 ularly introduced until after 1872. Graduation theses were required 
 •in 1869 on some natural history subject worked out independently 
 by the student. 
 
 To this special work of the Normal School the State Natural 
 History Society largely contributed,—organized as it was only a 
 year later, and having its museum in the Normal building. There 
 Wilber and Holder and Powell and Thompson and Vasey worked, 
 and created a little center of scientific activity, the spark of whose 
 life has never yet gone out in Illinois. This body of amateurs, as it 
 was at first, and this institution, as their museum later became, stood 
 from the beginning in close relation to the schools. All the Normal 
 men were members of the Society; Prof. Turner, of Jacksonville, 
 
(s) 
 
 was one of its leaders; the State Teachers’ Association met with it at 
 Normal in 1861, in a joint session for the dedication of its hall, and 
 many of the teachers belonged to both organizations; it had for its 
 principal object a natural history survey of the state, the publications 
 of which it was hoped would furnish a suitable foundation for science 
 work in the schools; it regularly assumed, as early as 1868, the duty 
 of supplying natural history materials to schools prepared to use 
 them; it brought the official geologist and entomologist of the state, 
 and other scientific workers, into more or less familiar association 
 with the public school teachers; and it helped especially to interest 
 the outside public in natural history study and instruction. 
 
 And next we come to the state—college, as I wish we might call 
 it,—the Industrial University, as it was called at first. It was late 
 in the field, but was compelled by the necessities of its existence to a 
 vigorous activity in this direction. Organized especially to give in¬ 
 struction in the sciences and arts which underlie modern industrial 
 life, it was evident at once that its attendance must depend largely 
 on the general appreciation of a knowledge of science as a prepa¬ 
 ration for agriculture and the trades, and that the grade of its work 
 depended immediately upon the previous instruction in the ele¬ 
 ments of science which its matriculates had received. Since it was, 
 from the nature of the case, directly affiliated with the public 
 schools, if there were no science in them there could none be re¬ 
 quired for its own entrance examinations, and it must itself do at 
 first the work of an elementary school. Hence its regent and its 
 trustees were earnestly active in this matter, and to its influence, 
 I think, far more than to any other one thing, the final form of 
 the law of 1872 was due. The science clause of this law was, in 
 fact, introduced as an amendment by one of the University trustees, 
 Wilson Flagg, of Madison county (a graduate of Yale, an amateur 
 botanist, a horticulturist, and an ex-member of the State Board of 
 Agriculture), the chairman of the senate committee on education at 
 the time. But more important perhaps than this, the University 
 had, most of all and earliest of all, exercised what we may call a 
 powerful prenatal influence in this matter; since the extraordinary 
 campaign for an educational idea which began with a convention of 
 farmers under Prof. Turner’s inspiration in Putnam county in 1851, 
 and ended at Washington in the passage of the land grant act of 
 1862,—since this agitation for the education of the mass of the 
 people towards and not away from their future callings, carried al- 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 ways in its bosom, if not in its arms, the logical consequence that 
 such an education must be had in the public schools as well as in 
 the university, if it is to affect the welfare of the many and not only 
 of the few. And this, I have come to think, as I have studied the 
 record of the time, was clearly the main line of the movement which 
 resulted in our legal enactment. The State Superintendents’ reports, 
 the State Normal School, the State Natural History Society, and 
 the other things to be mentioned, were more or less powerful sec¬ 
 ondary aids; but the main result followed directly from the in¬ 
 dustrial agitation of the fifties. That reaching upward of the 
 masses for more power and more light, which, spreading from Illi¬ 
 nois eastward, gave us later the long line of land-grant colleges, and 
 gives us now the State Experiment Stations, gave us also, as a sort 
 of second growth from the seed first sown, the recognized accept¬ 
 ance of the natural sciences as a necessary part of the course of 
 study in a true people’s school. That this fruitful movement arose 
 earlier and went further here than elsewhere, I attribute to the fact 
 that it had here an able and devoted leader, who, himself an edu¬ 
 cated man, had those great human qualities which no learning can 
 overlay, and which gave him access to all classes and power with all. 
 The teacher who, knowing the history of the state, does not to day 
 honor Jonathan Baldwin Turner as a patriot and a public bene¬ 
 factor, does dishonor to himself. 
 
 Of course I need not say that the schools and teachers, espe¬ 
 cially the better ones, shared in this steady growth and felt the stimu¬ 
 lus of the light and inspiration centered upon them from so many 
 sources. Beginning in 185 r, we find a superintendent of Stark 
 county saying hopelessly that, desirable as it is, he sees little pros¬ 
 pect of a study of science in his schools, and, indeed, that some of 
 his people still object to geography, even ; as contrary to the Bible, 
 because it teaches that the world is round instead of having four 
 corners; but in 1872, Principal Roberts, of Galesburg, says in his 
 presidential address to the State Teachers’ Association, that prob¬ 
 ably all the teachers really fitted to teach the sciences were actually 
 teaching them when the new law went into effect. 
 
 Chicago has always gone her own way in these matters, within the 
 state but not of it, and has to-day no natural science in her grammar 
 schools, as I learned lately in response to a circular request for in¬ 
 formation. In her high schools, however, these subjects have had 
 a place from the beginning, apparatus for chemistry and for physics 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 being supplied in 1856 as a part of the original equipment of her first 
 high school. Indeed, in 1869 the general introduction of natural 
 history throughout the schools was advocated at some length by the 
 president of the city board, and the examinations required for ad¬ 
 mission to the high school at that time show that candidates had 
 received some general instruction in the sciences of nature,—appar¬ 
 ently the object lessons of that day. 
 
 The Cook County Normal, opening in 1867 with a two years* 
 course, gave object lessons for four terms and taught botany for 
 one and physics for two. In the Peoria County Normal School, 
 botany and physiology were taught in 1872, under Principal White. 
 In the Aurora schools, Principal Jones had introduced in 1868 ah 
 elaborate course in natural science, beginning with the first year of 
 the primary, and running through the high school. In the primary, 
 lessons were given on the human body and on animals and plants; 
 in the intermediate, on the human body and the laws of health and 
 in mineralogy and botany, the last studied with specimens in the 
 pupils’ hands. In the high school, more advanced and systematic 
 work was done in botany, zoology, physiology, and physics. The 
 work of this school was elaborately described by Dr. Bateman in his 
 report for 1868, under the title of “a model graded school.” In the 
 Carrollton high school, botany and physiology were taught in 1870 
 in the first year’s course, and chemistry and physics in the second. 
 In 1871 Etheridge published, as Superintendent of Bureau county^] 
 a graded course for his rural schools, in which object lessons ran 
 through all the grades from the second to the sixth, and included 
 something of anatomy and physiology, the zoology of the domestic 
 animals, and the like. 
 
 In this same year two other model courses of instruction were 
 made public; one for the lower grades and one for high schools, the 
 former by White, of the Peoria County Normal, and the latter by 
 Miss Grace Bibb, of the Peoria City High School, afterwards an 
 instructor in the University of Missouri. In White’s lower grade 
 program one third of the time of six-to ten-year-pupils was given 
 to oral object lessons; from ten to thirteen years, one sixth of the 
 time to botany and physiology; and from fourteen to sixteen years, 
 one ninth of the time to zoology and physics. Two and a half years 
 out of eleven were thus given to natural science,—in a ratio dimin¬ 
 ishing towards the high school. How different this from the com¬ 
 mon pretence of the present time that the natural sciences are 
 
(«) 
 
 higher branches, to be taught in the high school only! Miss Bibb’s 
 four years’ English high school course gave more than one third of 
 the time to physiology, botany, physics, chemistry, and geology; and 
 her mixed course more than one fourth. 
 
 Roberts, of Galesburg, in the address already mentioned, al¬ 
 lotted one third of the time in the high school to the sciences of 
 nature. 
 
 In the Peoria High School, under Coy, in 1871, collections 
 were made by the pupils, and museum cases were provided. In 
 the Dixon schools the directors required, in that year, all teach¬ 
 ers employed by them at the time and all candidates for positions 
 there to pass examinations in physics, physiology, and botany, be¬ 
 sides the studies required by law. 
 
 I consider it a remarkable fact that in all the abundant writing 
 and discussion of that day, I do not find anywhere a note of discord. 
 There was no opposition, objection, or even criticism of the move¬ 
 ment, important enough to show itself in print. 
 
 To follow out this process of the growth and development of 
 opinion, knowledge, and experience, during this period preceding 
 the passage of the amended law; to show how the subject attracted 
 continually greater and more important attention in the teachers’ 
 institutes and associations—county and state—in the gatherings of 
 principals and county superintendents, and in the essays and ad¬ 
 dresses contributed to the two leading educational periodicals of the 
 state —The Illinois Teacher and The Chicago Schoolmaster —would 
 be to describe point by point the gradual dawning of the day, and 
 would leave me no time to speak of the interesting effects which 
 followed when the machinery of the law laid hold of the slowly ris¬ 
 ing sun, hauled it above the horizon with a single pull, and bade it 
 shine there in full blaze without further loss of time. Some teachers 
 were greatly rejoiced at this miraculous interposition in favor of 
 their hopes and aspirations; but most seemed unmistakably startled, 
 and evidently began to think that it was likely to be a very warm 
 day. “The natural sciences are upon us, and we must do the best 
 we can,” one such is quoted as saying. 
 
 That the law was a surprise to most of the teachers, neither ex¬ 
 pected nor wished, indeed, at the time, is shown especially by this cir¬ 
 cumstance: The original bill amending the school law of the state (but 
 without the science clause, which was an afterthought) had been in¬ 
 troduced in the previous session of the legislature, but not finally 
 
acted on; and a copy of this bill, published by State Superintendent 
 Bateman, was widely circulated in 1871 among the leading teachers of 
 the state, to call out an expression of their opinion. It was considered 
 and reported upon by committees of the State Teachers’ Association, 
 of the Principals’ Association, and of the County Superintendents, 
 and important amendments were made to bring it into accord 
 with their various views; but neither by Dr. Bateman himself, 
 nor anywhere in the published correspondence and discussion, 
 so far as I can find, was any mention made of a change in 
 the requirement for the teacher’s certificate, or of the introduc¬ 
 tion of new studies into the common schools. The teachers were 
 working toward this end and preparing for it, but they were not 
 yet ready. This thing was clearly done by others, over their heads, 
 and in advance of their wishes, although not really against them. 
 Let us note especially the fact that the motive to the doing was not 
 wholly the teachers’ motive. The beetle that drove the wedge home 
 and struck the blow that split the log was really the practical ; these 
 subjects were added to the public school course because it was hoped 
 that a knowledge of them would help the people to live, and especially 
 that the lot of the countryman and of the workmen in towns would 
 be ameliorated if they knew more of the facts and laws of matter 
 and of life. And while this is clearly true, it seems also true that 
 the common interest in the matter was not very great. It was an indefi¬ 
 nite and half-hesitating sentiment, a diffuse and often ignorant incli¬ 
 nation to believe, ratherdian a positive belief,which was made effective 
 for the purpose it accomplished only because it had been fanned by 
 agitation and focused by the energetic will and vigorous intellect of 
 a few popular leaders. The situation was thus unusually interesting; 
 and the subject is a fit one for a monograph. I can only briefly de¬ 
 scribe what followed. 
 
 The somewhat inconsiderate character of the original Flagg 
 amendment is shown by the fact that, as introduced and as it passed 
 the Senate, it made no exception to the requirement that every teacher 
 in the state presenting himself for a state or county certificate must 
 pass an examination in the elements of the natural sciences. A proviso 
 permitting superintendents to issue, at the request of directors, cer¬ 
 tificates good for a year and in the district only, to teachers other¬ 
 wise competent but not prepared for science teaching, was intro¬ 
 duced as an amendment in the House and afterward concurred in by 
 the Senate. These provisional certificates were, however, very 
 
naturally regarded as a makeshift and a badge of disgrace, a pledge 
 of toleration only, and to the mass of teachers a full certificate 
 seemed immediately indispensable. They were not content to take 
 the provisional one for a year, and in the meantime to make ready 
 for a genuine examination, but they must have a full certificate be¬ 
 fore the school year opened. The law went into effect July i, and 
 the schools generally began in September. There were two or three 
 months, consequently, in which to learn four sciences, and, more 
 than that, to learn to teach them; so county institutes had a boom— 
 not very seriously affected by the fact that there were few compe¬ 
 tent to teach the new branches in them. The State Institute at Nor¬ 
 mal was thronged; and there all the sciences were taught, each forty- 
 five minutes a day for three whole weeks—about eleven hours to a 
 science, in all. The pupils were also advised to read a book, if pos¬ 
 sible, before coming to this institute. 
 
 The results of this wild work were not always perfect. A friend 
 of mine, who was a village school director at the time, has lately given 
 me an illustration. A teacher fresh from this Normal Institute was 
 conducting an exercise in zoology,while the director sat, book in hand, 
 supervising the same. The teacher read from his Normal note-book 
 to his class something about the candal appendage of an animal. 
 “ Isn’t that word caudal ?” modestly asked the director. “O,” said 
 the startled scientist, “is it caudal in the book? ” 
 
 It need not be said that the “graduates” from these “courses” 
 usually passed their county examinations and got the coveted full 
 certificate. For the makers of the law had either overlooked one 
 most important point, or else had made a curious assumption. The 
 fact was recognized that the teacher’s qualification must be tested by 
 an examination, but no one was set to examine the examiners. It 
 seems to have been assumed that the county superintendent was 
 necessarily and ex-officio a botanist, a zoologist, a physiologist, and 
 a natural philosopher; and that he was also a teacher of all the 
 natural sciences. It may be surmised that the examinations were 
 not usually dangerous, except, possibly, to the well informed. A lady 
 of my acquaintance told me that a superintendent asked her to 
 which class the turtle belonged. She answered that it was a crusta¬ 
 cean, because it had a crust—thinking of pie-crust, probably, with 
 its upper and lower layers and the filling between. “ No,” said the 
 superintendent, “ it’s a mollusk, because it wears a shell.” But she 
 got her certificate. 
 
(II) 
 
 And this indiscriminate scramble for the counterfeit present¬ 
 ment of the thing desired, was unfortunately not confined to the 
 vacation work of 1872. I regret to have to record the fact that 
 during the regular sessions of the Normal School a special class was 
 organized of would-be science teachers, who were hustled through 
 all the new branches in a single term. This was done with many 
 self-accusing groans, and certainly with no unworthy motive, but 
 because, all things considered, in the abnormal situation which had 
 been artificially created, it seemed to those responsible the part of 
 practical wisdom so to do. 
 
 Similar considerations must excuse the action of some county 
 superintendents, who made haste to renew, before July 1, all certifi¬ 
 cates of the good teachers in their schools, so that for two years 
 these might be at least nominally qualified for any situation. The 
 Schoolmaster published some outline lessons in botany and zoology, 
 two of the former covering about three pages of print, the latter 
 more elaborate, and then assured its readers that an eminent botanist 
 had said that any teacher \Vho had learned all which these two lessons 
 contained should be considered entitled to the certificate, so far as 
 botany was concerned; and the editor said further that a diljigent 
 reader of the journal for the year should have no difficulty in pass¬ 
 ing all the natural science examinations. Even the requirements of 
 the state superintendent’s office fell far short of an ideal standard of 
 proficiency. An elementary knowledge of zoology, to take an ex¬ 
 treme example, was defined to embrace the chief distinguishing 
 characteristics of the four grand divisions of the animal kingdom, 
 a general knowledge of the five vertebrate classes and their princi¬ 
 pal orders, and some special acquaintance with insects and their 
 chief divisions. 
 
 A single statement from the ninth superintendent’s report is 
 eloquent as to the results. During the three months after July 1, 
 1872, 3,975 teachers were examined in the natural sciences, and 
 3,114 passed. 
 
 But when this host of smatterers had been safely garnered in the 
 schools, and the worst strain of the sudden pressure had been thus 
 relieved, the solid and enduring work of thorough preparation be¬ 
 gan, or rather went on at an accelerated pace. 
 
 In one circular after another Dr. Bateman conveyed to teachers 
 and school officers full but concise official directions, mingled with 
 he most helpful suggestion and intelligent advice; while his next 
 
biennial report went like a trumpet call to all corners of the state, sum¬ 
 moning the teachers to come up, like an army that had suddenly 
 won an almost unlooked-for victory, and occupy in force, and 
 once for all, the new regions which had fallen under their control. 
 The seventy-five pages of this report on the natural sciences in 
 the schools deserve to become a classic. It is a discredit, not to 
 Dr. Bateman, but to the author of the work, that the name of the 
 former does not appear in “ Hall’s Bibliography of Educational 
 Literature.” 
 
 Dr. Gregory, also, regent of the university, who, as state super¬ 
 intendent of Michigan, had strongly urged ten years before that the 
 time for the old studies be abridged and the natural sciences be in¬ 
 troduced beside them, contributed by lecture, circular, and personal 
 advice, to give right direction to the rapid onward march; while the 
 development of the scientific courses in the growing university 
 helped supply the greatest need of the time, that of trained and in¬ 
 telligent science teachers. The State Normal School at Normal 
 continued its scientific work with the addition of a term of zoology, 
 and with a great improvement in its methods in every branch. To 
 it was also due the continuance of the Natural History Museum as 
 ah independent establishment, after the death of the State Society 
 and the departure of Powell, Vasey, and others from the state. It 
 contributed from its funds to the support of the educational work 
 of the museum, giving it shelter, standing, and indorsement in the 
 state when, practically abandoned by its founders, it had little else to 
 go upon, and keeping it alive until an opportunity arose to get for it 
 legal recognition as a separate institution. It also stood behind the 
 two summer schools of natural history held at the museum in 1875 
 and 1876; schools at which Professors Wilder and Barnard of Cor¬ 
 nell, joined with Burrill of the University, Thomas of the Southern 
 Normal, and the writer, to give instruction for four weeks in zoology 
 and botany to forty or fifty active and enthusiastic teachers. A greater 
 supply and variety of marine objects for dissection were had at these 
 inland schools than at their Penikese predecessor. From this mu¬ 
 seum (later the State Laboratory of Natural History) large sup¬ 
 plies of specimens were sent out, and at the Bloomington meet¬ 
 ing of the State Association in 1873, an organization of schools 
 and colleges was formed for the collection and exchange of natural 
 history material, this to pass through the museum at Normal for 
 determination, preparation, and distribution. This work was kept up, 
 
1 13) 
 
 the museum duplicates being added to the sets sent out, until all the 
 schools participating had respectable cabinets. 
 
 The educational journals of 1872 and 1873 were very largely 
 given up to a discussion of science teaching; and those who imag¬ 
 ine that the new movement went astray because of the ignorance of 
 its leaders, will do well to look at the volumes of The Teacher and 
 The Schoolmaster for those years. While the discussion of general 
 principles sometimes lacked scholarship, it was nevertheless sound in 
 the main; and the outlines of work and the formal lessons presented 
 and the courses and detailed methods recommended, were usually 
 the results of solid thinking and successful experience. Another 
 class of helpful papers published at this time consisted of hints for 
 self-help in field work and study, by those whose own experience had 
 taught them how to instruct their fellows. In fact, all the educational 
 institutions and associations of the day were worked at full speed, 
 vacations and all, to bring the mass of the teaching body up to the 
 requirement of the law. So a great impulse was given to honest 
 and earnest work—there is no doubt of that—and the science move¬ 
 ment soon gained genuine strength and impetus enough to success¬ 
 fully endure the strain of the reaction which inevitably came when 
 the slipshod work done by the incompetent began to bear its fruit. 
 In many of the schools presided over by these teachers the sciences 
 went out of the window almost as fast as they came in by the door, 
 —fortunately for such schools, because such teaching as these 
 subjects had, could result at best only in an irreparable waste of 
 precio,us time. 
 
 But time forbids my following the subject out in further detail, 
 and I can only hurriedly sketch the present situation. In the first 
 place, the sciences are hardly in the rural schools at all—those for 
 which it was fondly hoped they would do the most. This is partly due 
 to a change in the law itself, made in 1874, chiefly in the interest of 
 the low-grade teacher, limiting the requirement of these branches 
 to the certificate of the first grade only. Most of the country teach¬ 
 ers hold certificates of the second grade, and cannot teach the sci¬ 
 ences if they would. We have to reckon also with popular ignorance 
 and with a sluggish public sentiment with regard to any aspect of 
 the matter save the financial one. Among the better informed there 
 is some uneasiness on this subject, and you can get a vote at any gen¬ 
 eral country gathering favorable to the teaching of these branches in 
 the country schools, if you ask for it, and because you ask for it, 
 
unless, indeed, it occurs to some one that this would raise the teach¬ 
 ers’ wages, and then you will probably have to fight for what you 
 get. The sciences are not there, in short, because the country teach¬ 
 ers cannot teach them, and because the average rural tax-payer does 
 not care enough for them to be willing to pay their present cost. In 
 the cities and villages of the better class, the elements of these 
 branches seeem pretty firmly fixed in the high school course, but 
 it is only the elements, and the work actually done belongs, usu¬ 
 ally, in the grammar school or still lower down. In now and then a 
 town or city school, as at Aurora, Decatur, and Cairo, there is a 
 graded and well-knit science course throughout. I have some statis¬ 
 tics on these matters which there is not time to give. 
 
 As to methods, they evidently differ widely. The lineal descend¬ 
 ant and successor of the teacher who got his science in three weeks 
 is still to be found in the school room, and he may teach from the 
 book alone, but even he knows better as a rule; and where there is 
 time and talent for the work, the teaching is often excellent. The 
 right general ideas are common property, but they lack fullness and 
 detail—in short, scholarship; and have not been worked out in sys¬ 
 tematic, well-knit, correlated methods and courses, adapted to the 
 country school, and to the various grades in city and town. The 
 motive to the work seems now almost wholly pedagogical and its 
 economic basis has chiefly fallen away. This is partly due, I think, 
 to that sluggishness of popular interest already spoken of, and partly 
 to the fact that the actual work of the school has not commonly 
 been directed to the economic end, and so the utilitarian results 
 hoped for have not followed. The professional feeling of the teacher 
 has sometimes kept him from this, and often he simply has not known 
 how. 
 
 All this has, perhaps, a discouraging sound, as a report of pro¬ 
 gress after seventeen years, and yet it offers us this very great en¬ 
 couragement. The whole matter is now practically in the teachers’ 
 hands; and we are vastly better prepared in every way to meet the 
 difficulties, to solve the problems, to apply and develop methods, to 
 arouse the public interest, and to justify our work by its results, than 
 we were in 1872. Let us natural science teachers band ourselves 
 together, ground ourselves and each other, so far as we have not 
 already done so, in a sound pedagogy based on a sound psychology; 
 study the methods of foreign lands, where our subjects have been 
 longer taught than here; agree, if possible, on courses and methods 
 
for the country schools' and for each class of the graded school; 
 examine and report upon the science work in our various towns, in 
 our counties, and in our congressional districts; publish as fast as 
 we are sure that our work is good and sound and true, and not be¬ 
 fore; and so lay together and build up, from year to year, by the 
 method of cooperative effort, a solidly-based and well-wrought 
 scheme of science work for the public schools of Illinois.