486 cox AND BEHNKE 



In most respects, the sciences have been slow to adapt themselves to these 

 changes and they still fall far short of meeting the requirements of the 

 present, not to mention the future, situation. With education of the masses, 

 the importance of treating science— through the various sciences — as a method 

 of problem solving, as a way of thinking, and as a part of one's cultural and 

 intellectual heritage has become of the utmost importance. Instead of meet- 

 ing this challenge and opportunity by the imaginative development of a new 

 conceptual framework for the presentation of the intellectual legacy of the 

 sciences, scientists have reshuffled and "watered down" the classical informa- 

 tional approach, usually reluctantly. All students, often by compulsion, have 

 been forced into some variation in style of a Germanic strait jacket designed 

 for the molding of future Doctors of Philosophy. Vocationalism has blinded 

 us to the fact that the best preparation for any life work — or life itself — is a 

 critical, discriminating mind. Educational ruts are cut deep, and only posi- 

 tive resourcefulness will get us out of this one. 



Perhaps it is too much to hope for, but we can dream about botanists as 

 the coonskin-capped pioneers of the next fifty years. It would mean dropping 

 the meekness or the belligerent reactionary approach and turning to a con- 

 structive creative one, in step with or a jump ahead of the times — not just 

 current scientific or botanical research, but social, cultural, ideological, and 

 educational trends and needs. Let's point the way in a few directions, recog- 

 nizing that a blueprint today will undoubtedly need complete redrawing five 

 years from now. 



The conceptual scheme of courses should undergo constant rethinking. Out- 

 moded courses must go, and new conceptual arrangements of botanical 

 knowledge must be developed. Sacred cows in the form of traditional content 

 of courses must be under constant critical scrutiny and must be slaughtered 

 when their usefulness has ceased or even when, with our limited pasturage, 

 younger and newer specimens are more deserving of our attention. 



Our botanists with the "new look" might well take a new look at their 

 educational aims, as well as the aims and values of all the sciences. The 

 result should be a new framework for the presentation of facts — an emphasis 

 on the applications of the methods of science and on the challenge of the 

 unsolved problems and the undiscovered principles and facts. Only by such 

 an approach can superior talent be attracted to the profession, and at the 

 same time botany will be revitalized for the general student. 



The place to begin, the crucial area, is the beginning courses. The basic 

 approach will be the same regardless of whether we are working up botanical 

 material for a general biology course or the content of a year-long first course 

 in botany. Since in many institutions a biology course is here to stay, our 

 enlightened botanist might well start by a surprise visit to the zoologist, who 

 is probably in charge of the course. He would not be carrying the usual 

 substantial log on his shoulder but would be loaded with constructive sug- 



