432 Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



not do laboratory work in biology because he has no laboratory, no microscopes 

 or other appliances. This is his excuse for using only a text-book. A school- 

 room with plain desks, when these are used for dissecting and observing speci- 

 mens, becomes a laboratory, and careful, patient examination with a good hand 

 lens goes a long way toward microscopes. The work at present done in our 

 course in botany would require only a hand lens (tripod), needles, and a knife, 

 with such other things as can be brought by the students. A teacher who can 

 work up a course from such beginnings will have no trouble in getting from school 

 authorities the more convenient tables, microscopes, aquaria, microtome, and 

 other apparatus. In other words, first start the course, and if well founded its 

 demands will become apparent and imperative. 



What has been said about apparatus applies in a way to the number of sub- 

 jects or types covered in the course. It is not necessary, in fact not even desir- 

 able, to attempt covering the whole plant or animal kingdom in the time devoted 

 to these subjects in the high school. This becomes patent when we reflect that 

 it is now generally admitted that one of the chief aims of secondary education is 

 training rather than informing. It is higher ability in a student to be able to re- 

 produce facts than to memorize them. Studies for disciplining the mind, not 

 didactic or informational ones, belong in the early education of children to pre- 

 pare them for life in its broader sense — the finding of one's true place in nature 

 and filling it in manly fashion. 



Above all things, laboratory work should teach thoughtful, painstaking and 

 accurate observation of natural phenomena (facts), for unless this is done with 

 method and surety, all subsequent inferences may be false, and so much valuable 

 time is lost in a double sense. Too frequently only the more striking or interest- 

 ing phenomena are brought out and the teacher becomes a showman instead of a 

 true pedagogue. Next comes, naturally, methodical recording and grouping of 

 facts that they may be compared with each other. Here it is important to allow 

 time enough for giving its place to each fact according to importance, that the 

 relevant facts may be at once recognized for use in the following step, which, 

 though the most difficult, when thus thoroughly approached is now clear sailing 

 — the drawing of conclusions. Then the formulating of principles and their clear 

 record in drawing and writing are the lasting results of such a piece of work. 



With young students it is necessary to make brief, comprehensive statements, 

 drawing more rigid lines than exist in nature, for in their cases numerous exceptions 

 and modifications lead to uncertainty and confusion. Begin anywhere in nature 

 and study anything so long as you proceed logically and systematically from your 

 starting point. As far as possible make out your own directions and questions 

 to cover the exact ground, so that you do not have to tell the students " we must 

 omit this " or "fill in that." Or if you must use a book (laboratory guide) have 

 the best, and stick to any part you wish to use, rather omitting a whole subject 

 than part of any one. 



The trouble with most books of this kind is that they tell too much, leaving 

 the student little chance for originality. He mechanically verifies what the book 

 says, fitting his plant or animal to tlie description — rather than making his 

 description from the specimen. Writing directions and questions on the board 



