350 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1346 



can lecture at. But if lecturer, laboratory as- 

 sistants, quiz aides combined and divided tbe 

 entire group in any department, students 

 would develop more power than under the 

 present method. They might not come in 

 contact with as many facts, but they would 

 retain more of those they did become ac- 

 quainted with, and their power of thought 

 would be much greater. "We have probably 

 swung to an extreme anyway in paying large 

 salaries to a few lecturing departmental 

 heads; we should have a better faculty and 

 consequently a more creative generation of 

 scientists developing if we spread our re- 

 sources more equably over the entire teach- 

 ing force. 



A few other objections to the method one 

 always espects to encounter in any discussion 

 of it: that students are purposeless and lazy; 

 they must have their work planned for them 

 and be held or driven to it. They are chil- 

 dren. Tet an unsjwiled child is purposeful. 

 And even if a freshman is somewhat dulled 

 by his previous training, that seems scarcely 

 a good reason for going on with the dulling 

 process. 



One hears, too, that the years of prepara- 

 tion are so short and the facts of knowledge 

 so many it is the business of the instructor 

 to organize material into simple form, easy 

 to memorize, and give it to the students in 

 lectures or text-books. Of course if a uni- 

 versity chooses to do this inferior sort of 

 work, training accurate automata instead of 

 turning out thinkers, that is, presumably, its 

 privilege. One wishes, though, there were 

 some place students who didn't choose to 

 become automata could go. So little of life 

 is lived at the conscious level, and it is pri- 

 marily from that part of life that progress is 

 obtained, it seems a pity to shorten a man's 

 real living and limit his contribution by dis- 

 couraging living at that higher level. 



Another objection that is subconscious 

 rather than espresed is that the method re- 

 quires rather more self restraint and mental 

 flexibility than most instructors feel equal to. 



Whether or not it seems worth while to 

 excavate beneath the crust of indifferenece 



formd in self-defense during the preparatory 

 years of prescribed work will depend on the 

 value one places on creative thinking. Per- 

 haps it does not seem to every one our great- 

 est natural resource; but such an one is prob- 

 ably not himself very creative. 



It is frequently contended that under such 

 a method of teaching a student will lack 

 system and an orderly grasp on the whole 

 subject. The amount of systemization of 

 knowledge will undoubtedly vary among free 

 students; some orderly arrangement of mate- 

 rial there must be. But the creative mind is 

 less intent on classifying data than in gather- 

 ing more, and in projecting new theories. It 

 cares less to make of itself a card index of the 

 literature on any subject than to "push for- 

 ward the boundaries of knowledge." 



The real rock on which the method is likely 

 to founder, however, is the executive mania 

 for definite classification of mentality. We 

 must rule out variations from the medium. 

 We must know in just what st-age of develop- 

 ment each student's mind is — or rather, at 

 just what point in the assignment of the 

 year's work he is. However could we give 

 degrees? We can not be bothered with all 

 this individualized education. We don't want 

 thinkers anyway; we want followers. 



ITone of these difficulties and hindrances 

 greatly matter, once we are convinced of the 

 need for developing creative thinkers in our 

 scientific courses. 



But it will require grace to step down from 

 the lime light of the lecture platform, to cure 

 ourselves of this contagion of text-book writ- 

 ing. We elders are so sure that out of our 

 greater experience we can save our students 

 eifort and time. It is a clogging efficiency we 

 seek. The greatest contribution we can make 

 to a developing mind is to " stand out of its 

 sunlight." And in the long run, that is the 

 most efficient method; for individual initiative 

 produces most in the least time, and produces 

 it with a minimum of effort and friction. 

 The problem we ourselves find is a fascina- 

 tion; the problem some one else sets us is a 

 task. And our memory in the latter case is 

 treacherously unreliable, while the knowledge 



