MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 75 



that they exist. However, we need further study of an exact character on the 

 psychological as well as the biological side of the problem. 



An old psychological problem continues to disturb education, and, although 

 psychology has rendered some assistance, it has not given the light on the 

 subject that is needed. The problem is that of general versus specific train- 

 ing. Will the study of arithmetic enable a person to reason on every subject ; 

 will the study of non-factual stories train a child to construct images of a 

 scientific character ; will learning poetry train one to memorize faces ; and 

 so on? 'Probably no other one thing has been so infiuential in determining the 

 curricula of schools as the assumption that the doctrine of general training 

 is sound. Our educational journals are at times literally filled with specu- 

 lations on this problem, but we are getting very little scientific psychology 

 that aids us in settling this question. A few psychological attempts have been 

 made to obtain facts, but many of the studies have been made by amateurs 

 and the results have been accordingly amateurish, and have settled nothing. 

 The correct answer to this problem means almost everything to education, 

 since if there is a high degree of general training the curricula need be rela- 

 tively simple, but if there is specific training chiefly, then curricula must from 

 necessity be relatively complex. 



Another problem in education, — the last one which I shall mention, — is 

 that of teaching how to study. One phase of this problem is psychological, 

 and involves a knowledge of the laws of mental action. It is very easy to 

 assign a rule, a definition or a poem to be memorized, but it is a very different 

 matter to explain to the learner how to memorize it economically. To do 

 this, we must know the laws of memory, such as Professor Pillsbury gives in 

 his "Essentials of Psychology." But text-books- in psychology seldom state 

 these laws. Again, we assign a problem and instruct the pupil — or the stu- 

 dent, for that matter — to "think it out ;" but it is the exception and not the 

 rule that we find young people who know what thought is, and who know any 

 laws to guide them in thinking. The latter difficulty lies chiefly in the fact 

 that such laws have not yet been stated from the point of view of psychology. 

 Accordingly, until psychology states definitely and clearly the laws of mental 

 action or the conditions of such action, the educator cannot teach pupils how 

 to employ these processes effectively in study. 



In conclusion, it is evident to students of educational theory and practice 

 that further advancement in this field depends very largely upon the work of 

 psychology in discovering laws and conditions of mental development and 

 mental action. But psychology must do more than this : it must state these 

 laws and conditions in clear, non-technical language, and must see to it that 

 the knowledge is widely disseminated. Psychologists should follow the advice 

 of Huxley and publish their discoveries in an attractive, readable form, so as to 

 make their science exert the greatest possible infiuence. 



Northern State Normal School, Marquette, Michigan, 



