Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/173

Rh nothing unlawful or lawless in a curved spine or chronic constipation or an accidental poisoning. It is inconceivable that the ordinary pupil will get any very clear idea of "law in nature" from teaching that is as ambiguous as that of most teachers in the matter of law.

Ambiguous and misleading use of significant terms shows itself further in connection with ideas of causation—which certainly ought to be fundamental in science teaching. A teacher asks the question, "Why is air necessary to a plant?" Now this is a perfectly legitimate question if the meaning is "What is the relation of air to the maintenance of life in a plant?" But I have heard this and similar questions asked when the teachers' meaning was substantially, "What is the evidence that air is necessary, etc.?" In about three fourths of the cases the pupils will answer such a question by saying "Because the plant can not live without it." Teachers will frequently in such cases teach another answer—presumably the "right" one—but there will be no clearing up of thought.

Another type of question confuses a vague teleology with physiological principles of function, or with some ecological theory of adaptation. Thus, "Why has the grasshopper longer hind legs than the walking stick? Why has the rose-bush thorns? Why has a fly a shorter proboscis than the butterfly? Why has the bean-blossom a showier corolla than the oak?" These are actual examples of questions asked by teachers of biology in various schools. Strictly speaking, such a question means," How came this organism to have the character in question—organism here standing for species?" Which no one can answer. The pupil may have read or have heard of the speculations of Darwin or of Lamarck, but if he has, he should have been informed also that they were speculations. I have heard teachers who are regarded as of high merit asking such questions when they meant simply "What is the advantage such an animal has from this character?" Not only is the apparent utility, function or adaptation tacitly assumed by many teachers to explain the existence of organs or instinct, but the adaptation itself is assumed to be the "intention" or purpose of nature. The expression "nature's intention" is frequently heard in the class room. It may be impossible to speak in our public schools of the "purpose of God" without prejudice; but it does not seem to be a bit more scientific—and it is much more presumptuous—to speak of the "intention of Nature."

In the matter of intellectual honesty, does the teacher of science show any superiority over other teachers? The science teachers do not appear to me to be less prone than other teachers of my acquaintance to resort to indirect methods of accomplishing practical results. They do not appear to me to be less evasive in their dealings with subordinates or superiors. Pupils are constantly impelled to ask questions suggested