NOVEMBEB 13, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



659 



with the student so that he may appreciate 

 his difficulties. This can be done much 

 better in recitations than in lectures, but 

 best of all through personal conferences; 

 and, when conditions make it necessary to 

 give lectures at aU, they should be largely 

 supplemented by these means, so that there 

 may be individual contact with the student. 

 It is to be hoped that the plan of regular 

 conferences for which formal provision has 

 already been made in first-year English 

 and mathematics may be soon extended to 

 other subjects; but in the meantime much 

 is being done in this direction in an in- 

 formal way by many of our best in- 

 structors. I wish only to emphasize the 

 idea that such efforts are a well-paying 

 investment of the teacher's time. They 

 not only enable him to assist the individual 

 student in a variety of ways, but they show 

 the teacher the defects of his own methods 

 of presentation and establish a cordial 

 relationship between him and his class. 



One important cause of this imperfect 

 adaptation to the mental needs of the stu- 

 dent is the lack of correlation between 

 the different subjects of instruction. A 

 teacher ought to know both what the 

 student has already learned in his previous 

 courses and what he will need to know in 

 the later dependent subjects. To this end 

 it is important that instructors should at- 

 tend exercises in other subjects than their 

 own, examine the text-books used, the notes 

 and problems given out, and the experi- 

 ments performed. For example, every in- 

 structor teaching applied mathematical 

 subjects in the higher years of the various 

 courses should familiarize himself with the 

 new plan of teaching mathematics which 

 has been recently introduced. I believe, in 

 a large school like the institute, the im- 

 perfect correlation of the different subjects 

 of instruction is one of the most serious 

 evils, and one which must be met by an 

 increased effort on the part of each in- 



structor to know about the work that is 

 being done in subjects related to his own. 



The third difficulty which I would refer 

 to is that which arises from the tendency 

 of the student to learn by memorizing and 

 to do his work in the laboratory me- 

 chanically, without thinking. We must 

 not allow ourselves merely to mourn over 

 the fact that the average student won't 

 think if he can help it, or try to justify 

 our failures to get him to do so by reflec- 

 tions on his earlier education. We must 

 face the situation as it actually is, and 

 realize that it is one of the most important 

 parts of our problem to make the student 

 think. 



Herbert Spencer is reported to have said, 

 "if he read as much as other people, he 

 would know as little as they." The re- 

 mark is worth remembering, in spite of its 

 complacency, for the light it throws on the 

 worthlessness of whatever is done without 

 thinking. In science, as in other depart- 

 ments of knowledge, no acquisition is real 

 and permanent which is not won by hard 

 thought. As every teacher knows, a most 

 effective way of making a student think is 

 by constant questioning. He emphasizes 

 a principle by asking questions about its 

 possible applications. He answers one 

 question by asking another, and, if possible, 

 gets the student to put the questions for 

 himself. The good teacher is constantly 

 trying to lead the student on, but he re- 

 fuses to carry him. In the laboratory and 

 drawing-room, where students tend to work 

 as if their whole purpose were to go 

 through the mechanical operations as 

 rapidly as possible, the successful in- 

 structor will be constantly on' the alert to 

 check this tendency. He will be with the 

 student at his desk as much as possible, 

 not telling him what to do, but seeing that 

 he understands and plans out his work for 

 himself. Only in matters of manipulation 

 and technique should a distinctly different 



