PARAGRAPHS FOR THE TEACHER IX 



prime requisite. The teacher should know more than 

 he attempts to teach. Every teacher should have 

 access to the current botanical books. The school 

 library should contain these books. By consulting the 

 new books the teacher keeps abreast of the latest 

 opinion. 



When beginning to teach plants, think more of 

 the pupil than of botany. The pupil's mind and sym- 

 pathies are to be expanded: the science of botany is 

 not to be extended. The teacher who thinks first of 

 his subject teaches science ; he who thinks first of 

 his pupil teaches nature-study. 



Teach first the things nearest to hand. When the 

 pupil has seen the common, he may be introduced to 

 the rare and distant. We live in the midst of common 

 things. 



The old way of teaching botany was to teach the 

 forms and the names of plants. It is now proposed 

 that only function be taught. But one cannot study 

 function intelligently without some knowledge of plant 

 forms and names. He must know the language of the 

 subject. The study of form and function should go 

 togethei*. Correlate what a plant is with what it does. 

 What is this part? What is its office, or how did it 

 come to be? It were a pity to teach phyllotaxy with- 

 out teaching light -relation: it were an equal pity to 

 teach light -relation without teaching phyllotaxy. 



