32 Kansas Academy of Science. 



owe something to others as well as to themselves and their col- 

 lections. 



The interests of the schools lie in the same direction as the in- 

 terests of, the people. In days past we have been guilty of think- 

 ing that names and classifications and a little morphology, with a 

 modicum of internal structure, were all that any student would 

 care to know about our insects, birds, fossils, and plants. But 

 modern and wiser science teaching demands that pupils get a 

 knowledge of fewer things discovered by others and of more things 

 learned by their own efforts. Knowledge in its dynamic forms, 

 rather than information in a static condition, is what the schools 

 need; hence the text-books must be suggestive, stimulating, and 

 healthful, rather than satisfying. The students must be induced 

 to collect largely and widely, both objects and information, in the 

 field, in the laboratory, and in the library. They need to know a 

 little of how others collect and what they discover — just enough to 

 serve as a stimulus to personal effort. As all know, every day of 

 the student's life must be fruitful of results; days must not pass in 

 fruitless waiting, as is the experience of most naturalists in field 

 and laboratory. Hence, manuals giving the essentials of what is 

 known of each form of life of economic and scientific importance, 

 and of each valuable rock and mineral, keys for the easy identifica- 

 tion of every species known in Kansas and suggestions opening 

 the way to valuable lines of inquiry should be accessible to every 

 student and young naturalist in our state, and should be prepared 

 by our most capable men of science. 



It is exceedingly unfortunate that many teachers should feel 

 that the items of information contained in physiologies and in old- 

 fashioned natural histories are so important that they should be 

 memorized by their pupils in a purely mechanical way. The re- 

 sults are of course disastrous. No wonder the sciences as taught 

 in many of our high schools and in the grades are disliked by the 

 pupils and are barren of valuable outcome. You who have read 

 examination papers from these schools may perhaps remember 

 some of the wonderful items of misinformation secured by this 

 cramming of valuable facts of experience gathered by another. 



A few samples of these misfit groups of unrelated ideas, gathered 

 from sources that shall be nameless, are given as illustrations : 

 "The alligator is the largest insect of North America." "Trypsin 

 changes indigestible food into proteid." "The undigested food 

 goes to the gall-bladder." "Things that are equal to each other 



