82 Proceedings of the Ohio State .-Icadeiiiy of Science. 



is the duty of every college teacher to study the courses of the 

 high school with his prospective teachers and to warn them 

 against teaching college Botany in the high school. If there is 

 opportunity for these students to observe the work of a com- 

 petent teacher of Botany in the high school, this should be done. 

 Without special attention to those who expect to become high 

 school teachers, the result of sending our well prepared gradu- 

 ates into the high schools to teach may be no less objectionable 

 than the too comnion practice of starting young persons into 

 teaching Botany with little or no preparation. When our student 

 leaves us to teach in an educational environment entirely different 

 from the college, he should not show the imprint of his in- 

 structor too strongly, and much less should he teach in the high 

 school as he was taught in college. If he commits either of these 

 faults, he must be counted a stupid teacher ; and unless he has 

 been fairly warned and instructed, his college instructor is more 

 at fault than he. Botany stands high among the high school 

 sciences, and there is a large and increasing demand for high 

 school teachers of this science. These teacher come largely from 

 colleges, and the college teacher cannot shirk responsibility 

 in this respect. Unfortunately our science is often wanted in 

 comi)ination with some non-related subject. Our students care- 

 fully i)repared in this and other sciences frequently miss the 

 grotesque combination, and the Uotany is given to one who is not 

 prepared to teach it. The remedy for this side of the problem 

 rests with the high schools. 



Botany is a vast and rajjidly growing science, whicli can no 

 longer be completely covered in .any course, or by any man or in- 

 stitution. At best we can give our students only a perspective of 

 the subject. If we accomplish this in separate courses, as it seems 

 vve must, these courses should dove-tail into each other in such 

 manner that one will see the inter-relationships plainly and al- 

 ways think of the science as a whole rather than a series of de- 

 tached subjects. This is more easily accomplished in the smaller 

 institution, where all the work is under the supervisi(5n of a 

 single teacher, than in the undergraduate courses in a large uni- 

 versity. If the college teacher succeeds in giving his student such 



