THINGS ESSENTIAL TO BOTANICAL TEACHING 53 



frauded of their rightful share of the time and energy 

 of the teacher. School and college are, after all, but 

 a preparation for the world outside, and the principles 

 controlling human society generally should surely be 

 used as a guide in education. The world at large 

 does not leave its brighter members to shift for them- 

 selves and devote itself to the elevation of the dull 

 ones, and it will save the dull students and their fami- 

 lies much disappointment later if they are allowed to 

 find their own level in school or college. I do not 

 mean that the dull students are to be neglected by 

 the teacher, but simply that they are to receive only 

 their fair share of attention, and that it is just as 

 much the teacher's duty to take time to lead on the 

 best pupils into still higher achievement as to urge 

 the duller to greater efforts. 



Again, it cannot be too often nor strongly empha- 

 sized in education, as in development of the body, 

 that it is through effort that strength is gained, and 

 through responsibility that character is formed. The 

 great refinement of methods in recent years has had 

 a tendency more and more to shift the responsi- 

 bility for learning from the student to the teacher, 

 and to make the student consider that his duty ends 

 with a blind obedience to the teacher's wishes. This 

 is a very wrong attitude ; the responsibility for learn- 

 ing should be kept upon the student, who, therefore, 

 should not receive aid and admonition at every step 



