VI PARAGRAPHS FOR THE TEACHER 



tliat the secondary schools attempt only to teach 

 plants. 



A book may be ideal from the specialist's point of 

 view, and yet be of little use to the pupil and the 

 school. 



Every statement in an elementary text -book has 

 two values, — the teaching value and the scientific 

 value. An elementary text -book exists primarily for 

 the purpose of teaching; and good teaching results in 

 quickened perception rather than in absorption of 

 facts. 



The pupil should come to the study of plants and 

 animals with little more than his natural and native 

 powers. Study with the compound microscope is a 

 specialization to be made when the pupil has had 

 experience, and when his judgment and sense of 

 relationships are trained. 



One of the first things that a child should learn 

 when he comes to the study of natural history is the 

 fact that no two things are alike. This leads to an 

 apprehension of the correlated fact that every animal 

 and plant contends for an opportunity to live, and this 

 is the central fact in the study of living things. The 

 world has a new meaning when this fact is under- 

 stood. 



The ninety and nine cannot and should not be 

 botanists, but everyone can love plants and nature. 

 Every person is interested in the evident things, few 

 in the abstruse and recondite. Education should train 

 persons to live, rather than to be scientists. 



