ON THE TEACHING OF BOTANY IN SCHOOLS. 421 



Latin names for the shapes of their leaves, or discussing which of many 

 names proposed for a particular species was first used. It will be some 

 guide to the formation of a sound opinion upon any teaching coui'se in 

 Botany to inquire whether the fact that plants are living things is ignored 

 or put in a subordinate place. 



It is a mark of the present immatui'ity of the Nature Knowledge 

 movement that whenever a fresh attempt is made to stimulate the teacher, 

 it is accompanied by a great display of dried plants, diagrams, lantern 

 slides, models, slices of useful woods, lists of species observed, with their 

 dates, and maps of distribution. All these are dead products, and only 

 indicate that someone has been taking pains. Those teachers who fix 

 their attention upon the living plant and its activities will have little need 

 of bought appliances, 



TJie PupU must Work for Jnmself. — It is probable that most men who 

 have been productive workers in science have at length come to recognise 

 that the best part of their learning they got for themselves. Example 

 and guidance are thrown away upon those who do not make independent 

 efforts ; and knowledge accumulated by a mere act of memory is feebly 

 grasped and soon forgotten. It is not by listening to other people, nor 

 by reading their accounts of what they have seen and done, nor by gazing 

 at the pictures which they have drawn, that we make lasting progress in 

 ssience. The pupil who has been taught thus finds himself master of 

 mere scraps of information, too uncertain for any practical application. 

 He has no power of enlarging knowledge, or of applying old knowledge to 

 new cases, and it is well if he has not acquired a disinclination to carry 

 his studies any farther. 



The lecture as a mode of instruction in schools is nearly always bad. 

 It may be a passable expedient where the lecturer meets his audience 

 only once, and is able to suggest to them pregnant thoughts which 

 would have never entered their minds otherwise. But even the occasional 

 lecture is rarely stimulating, and the regular lecture is, especially to young 

 pupils, apt to be flat. We can enliven it a little by questions, especially 

 if the pupils feel free to question the lecturer, but that is not quite enough. 

 Choice and responsibility are necessary conditions of interest, and these 

 are hai'dly ever conceded to the pupil by any lecturer. There is a better 

 prospect of success when the usual conditions are inverted, and when ifc 

 becomes the rule for the teacher to listen to his class. Let them explain 

 to him what they have seen and thought ; let them draw before him the 

 structures which are under discussion. The explanations and drawings 

 may not be so good as those of a grown man, but at least they are the 

 expression of the thoughts of the learner. 



It is practicable, as actual experience shows, to substitute for mere 

 didactic lessons learning by personal inquiry, and it may be doubted 

 whether any single teacher who has made the change has afterwards gone 

 back to the lecture or the lesson book. We have no knowledge of even 

 one such case. 



A method of teaching in which every pupil is called upon to take his 

 .share has the incidental advantage that it cultivates the power of expres- 

 sion in the class. To be well accustomed to come forward and explain 

 one's meaning without embarrassment, to have learnt how to describe 

 complicated structures neatly, is no small gain to the pupil. In all but 

 quite elementary classes the pupils may be helped, not only to practise 

 tj^io art of expression, but to learn ^JO^y to v^s^. hoqk^ aright. To search ipi 



