NOVEMBEB 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



66c 



the term use is made of exercises bearing 

 on the collection of facts and on observa- 

 tion, to the end that the student may in a 

 degree learn how to observe, or at least to 

 realize, why he has hitherto observed so 

 little. To this end the class perhaps goes 

 with the instructor to look at some rela- 

 tively simple object, as the fac;ade of a 

 building. The natural sub-divi.sions are 

 first discassed, and the order in which they 

 may best be taken up ; then the lines of ob- 

 sen'ation essential to be followed in ren- 

 dering each of these parts. After perhaps 

 twenty minutes of this work, the men re- 

 turn with their notes to the class-room and 

 write the report. Following this prelimi- 

 nary exercise under the eye of an instructor, 

 more assignments are given out, of details 

 of buildings, and features of natural or 

 artificial interest about Boston, all being 

 subjects on which the instructor has taken 

 careful notes. The lesson of thorough and 

 systematic observation thus begun is en- 

 forced by the assignment of subjects of a 

 slightly different nature, from life, models 

 or photographic enlargements. In all simi- 

 lar assignments for written work, the at- 

 tempt is made to treat definite subjects, so 

 that the results can be tested at any time, 

 and criticized wholly, by an appeal to 

 facts. Later in the year a more ambitious 

 report is often attempted, involving not 

 only natural but logical subdivisions, say 

 on a neighborhood as a place of residence, 

 or on a preparatory school. The subject is 

 made general, but the student chooses that 

 particular place or .school with regard to 

 which he has the most information. To 

 help him in gaining what might be called 

 self-consciousness, an articulate recogni- 

 tion of the ideas which are lying un- 

 realized in his mind, he is given a list, as 

 complete as it can be made, of the observa- 

 tions which would be pertinent, for in- 

 stance the things necessary to be looked 

 out for in selecting a place of residence. 



It is usual in this work to leave the de- 

 termination of the scope and mode of 

 treatment to the student; and the result in 

 most cases is a long, detailed, relatively 

 mature, and often admirably arranged re- 

 port, of from ten to fifteen pages of theme 

 paper — the ordinary letter sheet. 



These reports, thus constructed, are es- 

 sentially like the engineering report of 

 later years, and in this connection it is 

 usual, when time permits, to study at 

 least one engineering report, with an 

 analysis of its headings, as showing the 

 divisions of the subject, and the sort of 

 ob.servations which the engineer has 

 thought it advisable to make under each 

 head. 



ThiLS there has been in the English in- 

 struction at the institute a conscious and, 

 I believe, a conscientious effort to meet the 

 conditions imposed by the needs of a tech- 

 nical school. The teaching differs funda- 

 mentally, both in spirit and in methods, 

 from the instruction in English composi- 

 tion given in academic colleges. I myself 

 was put through all the training offered 

 in this line by one of the foremost eastern 

 colleges; yet there were certain ideas which 

 seem to me fundamental in the training 

 of engineers that, so far as I can remem- 

 ber, were never hinted to me. Part of the 

 explanation for this is doubtless drawn 

 from my undergraduate stupidity, but not 

 all ; for I did absorb several strong impres- 

 sions more or less opposed to these. It 

 never occurred to me that fact is the back- 

 ground of all writing; or that a man has 

 no basiness to write about matters of 

 which he is ignorant ; or that the substance 

 is primary to the form ; or that writing, 

 like speech, is for the sole purpose of pro- 

 ducing an effect upon some other mind 

 and that all its laws must be derived from 

 the consciousness of this fundamental 

 principle. 



The great present needs of such teaching 



