47 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



backs to the development of independent investigating students 

 at college. The case is still worse for the girls. When women 

 begin to be really independent in thought, feeling, and action, I 

 shall be much more hopeful of the progress of mankind; and 

 happily the dawn of this better day has already begun. 



It is scarcely necessary to point out that, in the nature of the 

 case, the parents are in the best position to learn the hereditary 

 tendencies of their children; but inasmuch as in the large pro- 

 portion of cases the subject has never been given any serious 

 attention by them, it remains with the teacher to work it out by 

 such means as he can. As with the physician, practice makes 

 perfect in observation, interrogation and diagnosis. Often a little 

 conversation with the children when at their ease at home will 

 give more information as to their real tendencies than weeks of 

 observation at school. Parents frequently judge of the natural 

 fitness of their own children for the various callings in life very 

 badly ; and the assistance of the skilled teacher in deciding such 

 matters would be of inestimable value. By the skilled teacher I 

 now mean the one who is an expert diagnostician of powers and 

 especially of natural leanings in which heredity plays so very 

 prominent a part. How often is the college teacher, who re- 

 gards the mistake in the choice of a profession or career as fatal, 

 pained when dealing with certain of his students who plainly 

 should be somewhere else ! Yet it is hard for him to tell a young 

 man that he is out of place. This should all have been settled 

 long ago. 



In the course of some lectures on education given at the Johns 

 Hopkins University several years ago, Dr. Stanley Hall, the emi- 

 nent psychologist, drew attention to what he called a " life-book." 

 In this a record as impartial as possible of such sayings and 

 doings of each child of a family from infancy to adolescence as 

 may be a guide to real tendencies is recommended to be kept. 

 Teachers may widen their sphere of influence by making this rec- 

 ommendation according to discretion to at least some of the par- 

 ents with whom they come in contact. Dr. Hall lays stress on re- 

 cording the exact words of the child and on stating everything 

 with extreme accuracy and impartiality, as the fond mother is very 

 apt to put a flattering interpretation on sayings and doings and 

 fail to record the indications of weakness or evil. It is interest- 

 ing to paste in also the first letter, first story, first rude sketch, 

 etc., indeed anything that will give a clew to the real nature of 

 the child. 



But, as before indicated, the teacher may discover in a visit to 

 the home what may have escaped even the parents. I know my- 

 self of a born artist having been discovered in the very depth of 

 poverty by a physician who was making a professional call. 



