Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/603

Rh of labor on the part of bis bearers. Such a teacher fails in a most important respect. The pupil under bis guidance becomes a passive recipient of knowledge, and is not trained to rely on himself or to become an active worker in any direction. Patting one on the back and saying, "Don't you see this?" and "Don't you see that?" does not tend to produce a very robust mental development. You can not make a boy a good mountain-climber by carrying him up the Mount Washington Railway, no matter at bow rapid a rate; and, in ordinary life, there are many mountains to be climbed, up which there is no railway.

As far as I can judge from the qualifications of students who come under my instruction, the schools have within the last six or seven years made no perceptible progress in training the observing powers. The good advice given and the good text-books by competent authorities have not, as yet, produced any marked effect. As far as elementary training is concerned we are about where we were ten years ago. The college-instructor must still regard the student who studies under him as a school-boy whose capacity for observing and investigating natural objects has been blunted by a one-sided course of instruction at school. Hence we arc still under the necessity in college courses of beginning at the very beginning, and, if there is any mistake in our colleges, it is that the instruction in biology is pitched in too high a key. For those who are to study practically animal and plant life it is better to stick to commonplace topics for a year or two, and insist upon the careful examination of living plants and animals, before proceeding to an elaborate discussion of theories which, however great their value to mature scientific minds, would easily lead a beginner into mere vague speculation. The distinction between lecture courses for the general information of those who are not intending to enter pursuits which demand practical training in biology and courses for those who do need such training should be carefully adhered to. Again, an instructor should not hurry with bis elementary classes. Knowing how much there is to be learned, he naturally feels obliged to teach as much as possible. But it is better to be slow and sure in the beginning, and, if necessary, hurry at a later stage.

One serious difficulty under which our colleges labor in laboratory instruction is the lack of a sufficient number of suitable assistants. This is not usually because properly qualified assistants can not be obtained, but because they can not be obtained for the salaries which are usually paid. In teaching elementary classes of from twenty-five to fifty persons in branches requiring the use of the compound microscope, one assistant is not enough. To do the work properly, at least two, and, better still, three assistants are needed, supposing, as is generally the case, that all the work is done on three days of the week.

The question arises whether we are ever to expect that the elements of biology will be properly taught in schools. At present there