CHIVERS: DIRECTING FACTORS IN TEACHING OF BOTANY 35 



attention is the teaching in our public schools. Too long the 

 theory has been held by those responsible for such work, that 

 any teacher not otherwise fully occupied should be capable of 

 handling the botany. The high school of one of our well-known 

 New England cities recently handed over the botany and zoology 

 to a classmate of mine who, during his college course, had received 

 no training in these sciences. His inquiries regarding the best 

 method for preparing himself, in two months, to teach these 

 subjects, were to me no less than pathetic. I have no doubt that 

 on inspection we might find many teachers explaining the anatomy 

 of the dandelion head as that of a single flower, and the columella 

 of bread mold as arising from a cross wall, which, by a process of 

 bulging, arrives at its final position in the sporangium. 



That the teaching of botany of the present day is of a better 

 character than formerly we are all willing to admit, but there is 

 still some opportunity for improvement in some of our schools, 

 and great need for improvement in others. Greater care and 

 wisdom must be exercised in the appointment of teachers, and 

 just as far as possible those should be chosen who not only have 

 mastered the elements of botany, but have, by virtue of a broad 

 and deep training, an appreciation for more of the subject than 

 the mere minimum requirement of the class room. 



The third problem which botany has been obliged to face in 

 the last few years is that of nature study. Every one must be 

 aware that the science has suffered at the hands of those who 

 have pleased to popularize botany at any cost, and at times even 

 to sacrifice truth. As a result the ugly but somewhat merited 

 name of nature-faker has arisen. Teachers of the general public 

 and of students in our public schools have deceived themselves 

 in the thought that knowledge is to be acquired by play, not work; 

 that the child who makes a conventionalized drawing of a butter- 

 fly is mastering a lesson in zoology, when in reality he is receiving 

 instruction in art or free-hand drawing; that the boys and girls who 

 plant beet seeds in the school garden are acquiring botanical 

 knowledge at the same time that they are receiving an elementary 

 lesson in agriculture. 



I believe the botanical garden and museum, if wisely directed 

 and carefully arranged, may have a strong correcting influence 

 upon those who tend to misinterpret, wilfully or otherwise, natural 



