HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. ^-jj 



resultant of all those forces represented in ancestors forces 

 which have been modified in innumerable ways by ancestors a 

 consideration which greatly complicates the study of heredity. 

 But if any one principle has been established it is that heredity 

 is stronger than environment. However, we must point out that 

 the weaker the heredity the stronger the environment. Educa- 

 tion, in the proper sense, can do more, relatively, for a mediocre 

 or weak nature than for a very strong one. A real genius or a 

 criminal will be such regardless of education ; so that the practi- 

 cal issue for educators narrows down very much to the question 

 of heredity and environment for the mediocre or submediocre. It 

 is with the latter classes that the teachers of the land have mostly 

 to do, though we must not overlook the possible best and wisest 

 that may be intrusted to our care. Our systems are not well 

 adapted to discovering them, especially those of high talent or 

 genius, affairs so tend to averages and mediocrities in all direc- 

 tions these days. 



It will now be my aim to indicate how the educator may, by 

 a study of heredity in a practical, individual way, as well as he- 

 redity as a general fact in Nature, increase his usefulness by di- 

 recting his energies to better advantage, from more exact knowl- 

 edge of the individuals with whom he has to deal. However 

 skilled the teacher may be in reading the individual from his con- 

 duct, the diagnosis (to borrow a medical term) will be much safer 

 if we know the family history and the ancestral tendencies. It is 

 so as regards disease i. e., tendencies of the physical organization 

 and it is equally so with the mind, though not yet so generally 

 recognized. The teacher who knows nothing of the parents of a 

 child is but poorly prepared to do the best possible in developing 

 that child. 



With all the disadvantages associated with the career of a 

 country school teacher who " boarded 'round " or was expected to 

 make periodic visits, it can not be denied that he had opportuni- 

 ties for understanding that all-important home environment of 

 his pupils, and of studying the parents and other relatives, and 

 gathering hints from scraps of family history that greatly helped 

 him who was not a believer that all children are to be treated 

 educationally just alike, all minds to be compressed into the same 

 mold. 



With all its imperfections, I am bound to say that the indi- 

 viduality of the pupils in the old log schoolhouse was often more 

 develoj)ed than in the city public school of to-day, where for a 

 boy to be himself frequently brings with it the ridicule of his fel- 

 lows a condition of things that has its effect afterward on the 

 lad at college. I find this fear of being considered odd out of 

 harmony with what others may think one of the greatest draw- 



