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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1290 



tte address above cited, to point out the 

 fallacy of basng introductory courses chiefly 

 on one of the various phases of a science, 

 whether the economic or not, to the exclusion 

 of the others. It is breadth of contact that 

 is needed by the pupil, a broad survey of the 

 field, for it is just as true to-day as ever that 

 the fundamental need is a liberal or liberal- 

 izing, education — the setting free of the mind 

 and spirit from all that narrows and dwarfs — 

 the correction of intellectual myopia. This 

 is why I like the term introductory course 

 better than elementary course. One may give 

 an elementary course in plant physiology, or 

 morphology, or taxonomy, or ecology, but 

 neither of these would be an introduction to 

 the science of botany. 



liTeither would a course be that dealt only 

 with facts of structure and function, and the 

 various ways in which such knowledge can be 

 turned to conunercial advantage, but paid 

 little or no attention to the larger conceptions 

 of interpretation, significance, cause, and spir- 

 itual values. It is undoubtedly a general tend- 

 ency of scientific men to neglect or subordi- 

 nate those phases of their subject, especially 

 in its educational aspect. This is natural; 

 it is partly because of their tendency to 

 concentrate on facts and percepts, rather than 

 on interpretations and concepts, that they be- 

 came scientists rather than philosophers. But 

 herein, also, lies in large part the explanation 

 of why, to the non-scientific, the various sci- 

 ences seem deficient as educational disciplines. 

 To them something of intrinsic and supreme 

 educational importance is lacking. 



Now this deficiency is not inherent in the 

 sciences ; it is only inherent in many of those 

 who cultivate them, and we have ourselves to 

 blame in large part if school officials of class- 

 ical training regard the sciences inferior as 

 instruments of a liberal education. A similar 

 deficiency would inhere in language and his- 

 tory, and even in literature if they were organ- 

 ized for school courses from the same point of 

 view as the sciences so commonly are. The 

 solution of this problem is easier and more 

 tfbvious perhaps for the humanities; but zool- 

 ogy and botany may easily be organized for in- 



struction so as to partake more fully of the 

 qualities that mark the humanities. The main 

 difficulty is that we somehow feel that our 

 problem or duty is to teach somebody botany, 

 rather than to utilize botany as a means of 

 educating men and women. We need never 

 fear that science and the advancement of sci- 

 ence will suffer in the least by complete recog- 

 nition of its function as an educational dis- 

 cipline. 



But what then, you ask, is your proposal for 

 an introductory course of study in botany? 

 Professor Peirce, in his address above cited, 

 modestly refrains from answering such a ques- 

 tion in definite terms. He is so averse, he 

 states "to. anything which may even seem to 

 dictate what intelligent, thoughtful, conscien- 

 tious students and teachers should do that, even 

 if I had a formula, I should keep it to my- 

 self." The present writer is constrained by 

 similar inhibitions, so far as the details of a 

 course are concerned. There is quite prob- 

 ably no one best course, but I feel certain that 

 any course organized on the basis of the con- 

 siderations to which attention has been called 

 above, will be superior to any course organ- 

 ized in disregard thereto. But whatever its 

 content in detail, it should and must, before it 

 is over, open the eyes and mind of the pupil to 

 those fascinating and liberalizing conceptions 

 which are the finest fruit of scientific research 

 and thought, presenting chiefly such facts as 

 will enable him to consider them with some 

 degree of intelligence. Among others are the 

 conceptions of biogenesis, evolution, nature 

 and theories of inheritance, reproduction and 

 the development and significance of sex, nat- 

 ural selection, the struggle, especially in Dar- 

 win's day, for freedom of inquiry, the nature 

 of life, the fundamental relation of plant life 

 to all other life, botany in the service of man, 

 the wonderfully enlightening subject of geo- 

 graphical distribution (in broad outlines), a 

 practical acquaintance with scientific method 

 and what the perfection of that method has. 

 meant to mankind as an instrument for the 

 ascertainment of truth in all departments of 

 knowledge, and glimpses, at least, of the his- 

 tory of the subject, not forgetting to empha- 



