The History of Zoölogy Teaching in the Secondary Schools of the United States*

Abstract

With the dawn of the nineteenth century biology was introduced into the secondary school curricula of the United States. Previous to this time it had held a minor place in European schools, but received no recognition on this side of the Atlantic. Its introduction into America is to be attributed to the broadening conception of the meaning and function of education which prevailed in the country after the Revolution and which expressed itself institutionally in the founding of academies, more liberal in both aim and subject matter than the earlier grammar schools had been. The introduction of biology cannot be connected directly with the founding of these academies except in so far as both are the result of one cause; for during the first quarter of the century it was confined within the limits of female seminaries and "to classes collected especially for hearing lectures on that subject.^Even in these places botany alone was taught, being regarded as preferable to zoology by reason of its being^more attractive, elegant and precise, so well adapted to the refinement of female education.^The precedence thus gained by botany over zoology it has maintained to the present day.' *Essay presented for the degree of Master of Arts, Columbia University, 1901.