TEACHING BY LECTURES, RECITATIONS 

 AND REFERENCE READING 



BY WM. A. LIPPINCOTT 



I take it that what is implied in my subject is the question "What is the 

 most efficient method of teaching Poultry Husbandry in the class room?'* 

 The question of laboratory practice is not included. If recitations imply 

 the use of a text book, the ideal method is one which is a combination of the 

 three methods mentioned. Each has its particular points of strength. It 

 is only when we take advantage of all of them that we have done our best to 

 present facts and principles clearly and fix them in the mind of the student. 



The three main advantages of the lecture are: (l) the personal touch 

 with the student and his conditions; (2) the impression of authority which 

 is given by the instructor; and (3) the opportunity for constant revision. 



It is impossible for a text book to be so general that it will deal with all 

 conditions without being so vague that it will practically fail to deal with 

 any. 



With a lecture an instructor may apply the facts and principles of the 

 text to the particular conditions found in that section of the country. 



In dealing personally with any individual, there is a distinct advantage 

 which is difficult to describe. Instead of simply writing letters, a business 

 house sends out salesmen to get orders personally. The truth which is 

 given in a fresh and vigorous way, by a person, makes an impression on a 

 student and takes on a significance that a written or printed statement does 

 not. This quickens the understanding and stimulates the memory. It 

 awakens interest and associates in the student's mind facts which would 

 ordinarily seem to have no connection. Memory depends entirely upon 

 the association of facts. And further, the lecture gives the instructor the 

 opportunity to bring out the connection between the fundamental sciences 

 and practical work. Our work is broader than simply making poultrymen. 

 We are employed by these great institutions, first of all, to develop men and 

 to help them find themselves. We have done a greater thing when we have 

 so presented our poultry work that we have taken hold of the imagination 

 of a student and bridged the chasm that seems to yawn between chemistry, 

 physics and the like on the one hand and practical agriculture on the other 

 and sent him out to be a scientist, (if his tastes and abilities lie in that direc- 

 tion) than we have if we have converted him into a poultryman. We are 

 here primarily to help men get located where their abilities lead them. If 

 they choose poultry we are then to make good poultrymen of them. Such 

 work as this can best be done through the lecture only. 



