PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 



Many attempts have been made in recent years to determine 

 what presentation of Zoology (and Botany) is suitable for a 

 first course, especially in the secondary schools. The follow- 

 ing principles may be said to represent the main points of 

 agreement among teachers : 



1. The work done in a first course is primarily for pupils 

 who do not take a second course. This first course should be 

 handled, therefore, as a life-training rather than as satisfying 

 an admission requirement. 



2. Laboratory work and field work are essential, both to 

 proper interest and to proper results, and should not be merely 

 illustrative of text or lecture work, but as far as possible should 

 be the foundation and point of departure of the lectures and 

 the text. No instrumentality open to the teacher is better than 

 the laboratory as a means of securing mental growth for the 

 pupils. 



3. On the other hand it is equally important that the work 

 shall not be confined to the field and the laboratory. " There 

 are many things in the infinite concourse of particulars which 

 we cannot afford to verify by experiment." The end of labo- 

 ratory work is gained for the elementary student when he 

 comes to appreciate the method and spirit by which sound in- 

 vestigation proceeds, has acquired enough technical skill to fol- 

 low elementary investigation on his own behalf, and has 

 learned how to appreciate, and if necessary to verify, the state- 

 ments of others. It is as easy to waste time in the laboratory 

 as in reading text-books. 



4. Laboratory directions in texts should be suggestive rather 

 than exhaustive. They should arouse the interest of the stu- 

 dent and direct his investigations rather than give him the 

 information which he seeks. 



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