638 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



enable students to become familiar with the limits and charac- 

 teristics of the main vegetable groups. To know bow to deter- 

 mine the scientific name of a plant is also useful, but is of sec- 

 ondary importance. 



It may be objected that the teachers now in our secondary 

 schools are not sufficiently trained to carry on this work properly. 

 Better give no instruction in it at all, then. But this need not be 

 the condition. If all our boards of education fully realized the 

 need of special training in this line, and were not, in many cases, 

 so lamentably corrupt ; and if vacancies were always filled by the 

 deserving, instead of those who have a "pull," we would have 

 plenty of teachers in our secondary schools in sympathy with and 

 abundantly prepared for this work. Our universities and other 

 higher institutions are sending out plenty of well-trained science 

 teachers, who stand ready to supply any demand for their serv- 

 ices. As to the training that science teachers should have, F. 

 Miihlberg * expresses the opinion that " the teacher of natural 

 science ought to have the necessary special scientific schooling 

 for that purpose. In no department of instruction is it less per- 

 missible to teach authoritatively than in this, and to make it a 

 subordinate branch for a teacher not specially prepared for it is 

 often worse than to provide no scientific instruction whatever ; 

 the teacher must not only be master of the material he teaches, 

 but ought also to be a model of the intellectual training he tries 

 to impart ; he should have the capacity to observe, describe, and 

 reason accurately about the material of study. In order to give 

 his instruction in such a way as to incite his pupils to an in- 

 terested activity in their studies, it is indispensable for hira con- 

 stantly to try to develop his own intellectual powers further, 

 and continually refresh them by special studies." 



But the most important point is yet to be considered, viz., the 

 development that ought to result from pursuing such a course of 

 study. 



The first thing that all beginners must learn is to see a thing 

 just as it is. None of us have this power fully developed. We 

 go through life with our eyes only partially open. We do not see 

 things as they really are. The first power that a proper study of 

 plants and animals develops is that of observing accurately. 

 None do this when they begin the work. Usually they see at 

 first only vague generalities. But the best stimulus to seeing 

 accurately comes through expressing what has been seen. This 

 expression should be required of the pupils in three forms : draw- 

 ing, notes, and oral discussions. This is a very valuable part of 



* Natural Science in Secondary Schools. Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C, 

 1882, p. 6. 



