THE PEDAGOGICS OF BACTERIOLOGY^ 



DAVID H. BERGEY 



Assistant Professor of Bacteriology, University of Pennsylvania 



I propose to consider the subject of teaching bacteriology from 

 several standpoints, and especially the place of bacteriology in 

 scientific education and in medical education. 



The students who, in the past, have demanded a knowledge 

 of bacteriology as a part of their instruction in general biology 

 have been much fewer than the number that should be seeking 

 this knowledge; in fact the demand has been really insignificant 

 in comparison with the importance of the study. An expla- 

 nation for the neglect of bacteriology as a part of the general 

 training of students of the biological sciences is difficult to find, 

 but it is evident that the teachers have been to blame, chiefly 

 because they have failed to emphasize the importance of the 

 study from an educational standpoint. They have been inter- 

 ested, more in the practical apphcation of a knowledge of bac- 

 teriology, than in the development of the educational importance 

 of the subject. 



The aim in modern education is to train the individual for 

 usefuhiess. With the present crowded curricula in schools and 

 colleges it is essential that the material presented for the train- 

 ing of students be selected with the greatest care. Each study 

 should be carefully weighed in order to determine its educational 

 value. It is necessary not only to select the subjects to be taught, 

 but also to arrange the order in which they may be presented so 

 as to obtain the greatest benefit from each. 



In the modern organization of society the interests of different 

 calhngs are so diverse as to call for general as well as special 

 trammg. This fact is now recognized in the preliminary education 



1 Presidential address, Seventeenth Annual Meeting, Society of American Bac- 

 teriologists, Urbana, 111., December 28, 1915. 



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