2350 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



more and more indispensable to tliose who would know tiiem in their true rela- 

 tions. The general who knows his soldiers by name is at a great advantage 

 over the one who knows them only as soldiers. It is very desirable that some 

 provision should be made for getting more of such knowledge. Possibly some 

 allowance for time spent in vacation might advantageously be given. 



It is an entirely settled thing, as far as the university is concerned, how much 

 is to be attempted. For several years it has been announced that the university 

 would accept for admission what a properly trained teacher, working by labora- 

 tory methods, can accomplish with a class in a year. If the teacher has been 

 specially trained in physiology and decides to emphasize that side of the subject, 

 or is skillful in securing practical ecological observations, and so wishes to give 

 more time to this or to that side of the work, by all means let him do so. Let 

 him teach what he knows best and what he loves best, let him do it entirely in 

 his own way and in his own time. Whatever may be true in other subjects, it 

 is certainly a fact that in biological science the best teaching can never be meas- 

 ured off with a tape-line and delivered by the yard. Nevertheless the time ele- 

 ment is most important. It is to be hoped that our biological teachers are none 

 of them animated by the spirit of the narrow pedagogue whose vision is limited 

 by his own subject and who is willing to absorb the whole of a student's time if 

 his fellow teachers will let him. Don't yield to the temptation to make your own 

 subject all there is, but if you are associated with teachers who want the earth, 

 then tight for the thing you teach and fight to win. 



It is settled that there are many things in biological teaching not yet settled. 

 Just how we are to develop certain principles and how we are best to secure 

 certain forms of discipline, I have often said if I knew I wouldn't tell. Nothing 

 can ever take the place of good, sound common sense, and no teacher can possi- 

 bly tell another just how to do it. Scientific teaching is and ought to be exper- 

 imental. The teacher must have his own high ideals, must study the pupil and 

 the conditions of the school, must use his best judgment day by day, learn by 

 his mistakes, do better the next time, and, like his students, "learn by doing." 

 University of Michigan. VoLNEY M. SpaldinG. 



Helps to High School Teachers of Natural Science. 



At a meeting of science teachers held in Rochester, N. Y., in 1900, when 

 asked what preparation in botany they would wish students to have for entering 

 college, the replies were uniform : As things now are, we prefer students to 

 enter college without any study of botany, on account of the hasty and imper- 

 fect work. Professors Spalding and Newcombe and others have been talking 

 with little effect on this subject till they are weary. Long since I gave up 

 attempting to reform the world. The trustees or boards of education are the 

 men we should talk to, for they employ the teachers, and they are not here. 



I have had a long experience with students who have been taught botany in 

 high schools, and I am sorry to say that I place little value on the work. There 

 are some prominent exceptions. There are great differences in high schools. 



