February, '11] DISCUSSION: TEACHING METHODS 83 



In planning the course I have distinctly eliminated the idea of train- 

 ing men to take positions in entomology. I have advised men who 

 have taken the course with me, and who have wished to specialize in 

 it, to go somewhere else for the postgraduate course, particularly 

 because I think it would be better for them to get a different view 

 point, and partly because of the multiplicity of duties that fall upon 

 the entomologist, and really make it impossible for him to give a 

 good postgraduate course, so that I have not had a single postgraduate 

 student, and am not looking for any. I have not turned out more 

 than one or two men that have followed entomology, and that have 

 made a success of it. I do not consider myself a failure as a teacher, 

 because I have turned out a good many other men who have done 

 good work, and whom I meet occasionally, and who remember 

 the instruction received from me. Now there is one point that was 

 not brought out, except in a very incidental way, and I think possibly 

 Professor Bruner referred to it, and that is, that in the course of lab- 

 oratory work a teacher can do an enormous amount of teaching while 

 watching the boys in their work, talking to them and telling about 

 the relation of the insects to other subjects, and doing it without the 

 formality that a lecture implies, and then suggesting to them that in 

 making their notes they also incorporate as much as possible of what 

 has been told them. Their own work is always easily separable 

 from what they remember having been told. I have been extremely 

 interested in the papers, and yet not a single one has touched the case 

 as it lies in my own institution, and where, as I think it may be pos- 

 sible in other institutions, we are not able to take the students out 

 for field work. Naturally the situation of an institution has a great 

 deal to do with the manner in which the natural sciences are taught, 

 and especially so in entomology. We have always plenty of material 

 to work with, but it is mostly material that has been collected for the 

 students, and they have very little opportunity of going into the field, 

 although they get some chance in my department and in the horti- 

 cultural department to do practical work in spraying. I follow 

 Professor Bruner's suggestion in that respect and turn over to 

 the Horticultural Department a good deal of the practical work of 

 spraying. 



Secretary Burgess: I wish to say in regard to arranging for the 

 symposium, that I asked Dr. Bethune and Dr. Wheeler to take part. 

 Dr. Bethune wrote that he could not be here on account of the fact 

 that it was necessary for him to submit to an operation at this time, 

 and Dr. Wheeler, I believe, is aw^ay on his vacation. It might be 

 interesting to note that the arrangement of Harvard postgraduate 

 work in entomology is to have the session last through the summer, 



