OCTOBEE S, 1009] 



SCIENCE 



465 



be assigned for each week. Punctual per- 

 formance of these exercises must be insisted 

 upon. The laggards must begin each week 

 with the work of that week, before making 

 up any leeway. Enthusiasts who would go 

 ahead, and finally reach a point where they 

 are performing experiments five or six 

 weeks before they are to be discussed in the 

 class room, must be restrained by force. 



Third, the subjects for the class-room 

 discussion must be assigned in advance, 

 either from the laboratory experiments, or 

 from the text-book, or both, and due prepa- 

 ration must be insisted upon in every in- 

 stance. To insure preparation, a question 

 susceptible of very brief treatment, yet 

 dealing with some significant point, may 

 be set at the opening of the hour. After 

 five to ten minutes, the answers are col- 

 lected, and later they are read, marked 

 and returned. Such questions may be set 

 at any class meeting, and as often as is 

 necessary to secure regular preparation. 

 The subject of the question, being now 

 uppermost in the minds of the student, 

 forms the best starting point for the sub- 

 sequent discussion. In this way, a section 

 containing as many as fifty to eighty stu- 

 dents ma}^ be handled. 



If the chief instructor has not time to 

 conduct the whole of the work, this, the 

 discussion or recitation, is the part of it 

 from which his presence can least be 

 spared. Here is the opportunity to use the 

 maximum of knowledge, alertness and re- 

 sourcefulness. Here is the place where the 

 student shows how far he has been able to 

 put together ideas for himself. Here is 

 the place for repetition and interweaving. 

 Here is the place for final removal of all 

 difficulties and for distilling from the sub- 

 ject the last drop of instruction that it can 

 yield. 



During these exercises the usual demon- 

 stration experiments are show^n at appro- 

 priate points. 



By this arrangement the student can not 

 feel that the laboratory work is for the ac- 

 quisition of mechanical skill, or for the 

 belated illustration of something mentioned 

 in a past lecture. He is made to feel that 

 it is a necessary and valuable part of the 

 preparation for the class-room work — 

 which is conducted so that the method 

 of converting laboratory experience into 

 chemical knowledge is made plain. Prob- 

 lems turn up unsought. The pupils have 

 acquired at least the routine knowledge in 

 the laboratory and at home, and the solving 

 of the problems is abnost the only thing 

 that remains to be done in the class room. 

 The whole time of the instructor is there- 

 fore devoted to teaching problem-solving. 



I am oflfering these suggestions merely 

 for what they may be worth. I have no 

 desire to dogmatize in regard to details. 

 I merely submit the almost self-evident 

 proposition that the lecture-method can 

 never play any appreciable part in train- 

 ing people to solve problems for themselves. 

 Laboratory work, if dissociated from class 

 work, will never do it either. A system 

 which exacts continuous and thorough 

 home-study, both of the text-book and of 

 the results of the laboratoi-y work, and pro- 

 vides for the maximum amount of the most 

 skilfully conducted discussion of the re- 

 sults that can be provided, stands a strong 

 chance of awakening and bringing to a 

 high state of perfection this, the most essen- 

 tial of all the elements in the mental equip- 

 ment of a human being. 



If the instructor feels, for any reason, 

 that lectures must be given, then many of 

 the most serious defects of the system may 

 be remedied by assigning the subjects in 

 advance for home study, and setting a writ- 

 ten question as described above. The whole 

 process consumes ten minutes, but the 

 pi-eparation it entails makes possible the 

 covering of nearly hoice as much ground in 

 the remaining forty-five minutes. Much 



