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. Students of the High School of Commerce have their first
contacts with modern science in a required course in chemistry in the
third year, and elective physics in the fourth year. In the technical
high schools the first science for the boys is systematic chemistry in
the second year and physics in the third. They have no opportunity
of contact with any biological science. The girls have "botany and
physiology" in their first year.
The city needs to organize preliminary work in general science for the
purpose of paving the way to the more intensive science work of the
later years. A portion of this should be found in the elementary
school and taught by departmental science teachers; and a portion
in the first year of the high school. As junior high schools are
developed, most of this work should be included in their courses.
As to the later organization of the work, the two technical high
schools clearly indicate the modern trend of relating the science
teaching to practical labors. What is needed is a wider expansion of
this phase of the work without losing sight of the need at the same
time for a systematic and general teaching of the sciences. It is a
difficult task to make the science teaching vital and modern for
the academic high schools, since they have so few contacts with the
practical labors of the world. Cleveland needs to see its schools
more as a part of the world of affairs, and not so much as a hothouse
nursery isolated from the world and its vital interests.