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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 724 



that it is not our primary purpose to 

 "maintain the standard," but that we are 

 personally interested in aiding him to fulfil 

 the established requirements. Up to the 

 end of the course the teacher should con- 

 sider every student who is doing unsatis- 

 factory work as one of the problems for 

 which he must try to find a solution; and 

 there is, I believe, no better way of securing 

 attention from a student who is neglecting 

 his work or of bringing up to the standard 

 one who is having difficulty with the sub- 

 ject than by showing a personal interest in 

 him. I know that this makes an added 

 demand on the instructor, and that what 

 any one can do in this way is limited ; yet 

 it is an aim to be kept in mind and to be 

 striven for. Since at the institute there is 

 one instructor to about seven studeijts, the 

 net result would be very large if each 

 teacher would endeavor to become well 

 acquainted with even this number of his 

 students. 



Close contact enables the teacher, too, 

 to influence in a pronounced way the point 

 of view of the student, both with reference 

 to his work at the institute and to his ulti- 

 mate aims. On occasions when I have 

 talked intimately with students about these 

 matters, I have often felt keenly how much 

 more they need advice about life than about 

 chemistry. Such individual conversations 

 furnish also the opportunity of giving the 

 student a broader interest by letting him 

 know of the scientific and professional 

 problems in which ourselves and others are 

 engaged. He thus sees more clearly the 

 future before him, and appreciates better 

 the value of the studies he is pursuing. 



Though personal contact is by far the 

 most effective way of exerting these general 

 influences, yet, since it is possible to pro- 

 vide for it only to a limited extent, we must 

 improve the opportunities which our reg- 



ular courses of instruction afford for se- 

 curing the desired result. 



Some of the ways in which this may be 

 accomplished are to indicate the wide scope 

 of scientific generalizations and the beauty 

 of theoretical explanations, to point out the 

 important technical applications of the 

 principles presented, to describe the con- 

 siderations and experiments which led to 

 their discovery and the participation of 

 individual scientists in their development, 

 and to indicate some of the numerous prob- 

 lems of the science that still await solution. 

 By thus emphasizing the broad scientific 

 aspects, the practical bearing and the his- 

 torical and biographical development of our 

 existing knowledge, and by impressing the 

 student with the idea that at present "our 

 science is a drop, our ignorance a sea," we 

 may do much to awaken his interest in 

 knowledge for its own sake and to develop 

 in him broader points of view and higher 

 aims. Especially must the importance of 

 these considerations be borne in mind in 

 subjects that have to be presented by for- 

 mal lectures. I have already indicated my 

 opinion that as a means of imparting a 

 fundamental knowledge and of giving a 

 mental training the lecture plan is striking- 

 ly ineffective, and can be justified from 

 these points of view only on grounds of 

 economy. It does, however, have in non- 

 technical subjects what may be called a 

 cultural function of some importance; for 

 it provides, better than the recitation plan, 

 the opportunity of arousing the broader 

 interests of which I have been speaking. 



In conclusion, as a summing up of these 

 considerations, I would urge that we take 

 care not to interpret our work as teachers 

 too literally— that we realize that our task 

 is a much larger one than that of imparting 

 a knowledge of our particular subject, and 

 that it is a broader one even than that of 

 developing the power of dealing with its 



