666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ZOOLOGICAL EDUCATION.* 



By Peofessoe W. S. BAENAED. 



IT is the office of education to direct the mental growth of the indi- 

 vidual ; and this should be by a developing and not by a cram- 

 mino- process. In our present system there is too much burdening of 

 the verbal memory, and too little of what may be called the objective 

 memory, resulting from the exercise of the mind upon actual objects. 

 What we want is more observation, more inductive reasoning, judg- 

 ment, understanding in short, intelligent thinking ; but how little do 

 we find of this in the prevalent method of education in institutions of 



all grades ! 



Ordinary courses of study do not include subjects upon which these 

 various mental activities can be sufficiently employed. They consist 

 too much in learning rules pertaining to language and mathematics and 

 their deductive applications, and too little in the objective investiga- 

 tion of things, the making of generalizations and the investigation of 

 laws. School facts and deductive sciences are means instrumental 

 to business success ; but they are not in themselves sufficient to carry 

 on the work of mental development. But, even where natural science 

 is taught in public schools, it is generally for a short time, late in the 

 course, and by the old method of memorizing or parroting from books 

 instead of making it a constant study of concrete objects, to which 

 some time should be devoted on two or more days of each week 

 throughout the student's whole career. This learning of nature from 

 books alone is an impossibility, a deception, and a fraud, like the 

 teacher's " can't for want of time and specimens," when the crops are 

 suffering from insects which swarm everywhere, and the chief amuse- 

 ments of the boys are to go hunting and fishing. 



Teachers should utilize what they can obtain by the help of stu- 

 dents. This is dangerous for the unfitted instructor, because he will be 

 constantly approached with new specimens and with questions he can 

 not answer. Yet it is better to have books of reference at hand and 

 look things up, or have the student do it, than to be robbed of the 

 benefit. I knew a Western teacher who formed a class of students 

 every year in some study of which he knew little or nothing, in order 

 that he himself might be profited by learning with them. Those who 

 teach other things well may venture to strike out boldly and improve 

 themselves in some part of natural history of which they were igno- 

 rant at the outset ; because it is better to swim than sink, though of 

 course a good preparation is preferable. 



No field is better calculated to improve the inductive functions 



* Read at the University Convocation, Albany, New York, July 13, 1880. 



