112 Selections from Huxley 



knowledge is hearsay, he is afraid to go beyond what he 

 has recollected, and put it before those that are ignorant 

 in such a shape that they shall comprehend it. That is 

 why, to be a good elementary teacher, to teach the ele- 



5 ments of any subject, requires most careful consideration, 

 if you are a master of the subject; and, if you are not a 

 master of it, it is needful you should familiarize yourself 

 with so much as you are called upon to teach soak your- 

 self in it, so to speak until you know it as part of your 



10 daily life and daily knowledge, and then you will be able 

 to teach anybody. That is what I mean by practical teach- 

 ers, and, although the deficiency of such teachers is being 

 remedied to a large extent, I think it is one which has 

 long existed, and which has existed from no fault of those 



15 who undertook to teach, but because, until the last score of 

 years, it absolutely was not possible for any one in a great 

 many branches of science, whatever his desire might be, to 

 get instruction which would enable him to be a good 

 teacher of elementary things. All that is being rapidly 



20 altered, and I hope it will soon become a thing of the 

 past. 



The last point I have referred to is the question of the 

 sufficiency of time. And here comes the rub. The teach- 

 ing of science needs time, as any other subject; but it 



25 needs more time proportionally than other subjects, for the 

 amount of work obviously done, if the teaching is to be, as 

 I have said, practical. Work done in a laboratory involves 

 a good deal of expenditure of time without always an ob- 

 vious result, because we do not see anything of that quiet 



30 process of soaking the facts into the mind, which takes 

 place through the organs of the senses. On this ground 

 there must be ample time given to science teaching. 

 What that amount of time should be is a point which I 

 need not discuss now; in fact, it is a point which cannot 



