52 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 732 



Palmer's admirable essay on "The Ideal 

 Teacher," must be primarily one who has 

 an aptitude and a passion for making schol- 

 ars of others, rather than merely becoming 

 one himself. Many learned men think too 

 rapidly and keenly to be able to adapt 

 themselves to the younger students. Pro- 

 fessor Palmer justly puts "the aptitude for 

 vicariousness" first in his characteristics of 

 the ideal teacher, for it is only by con- 

 stantly putting oneself in the place of the 

 "average man" of the class that the teacher 

 can evolve genuinely helpful methods of 

 presentation, and enable his students to 

 take such possession of the knowledge im- 

 parted that it adds to their power rather 

 than to their collection of impedimenta. 

 The teacher must not only, as some one has 

 aptly said, have his knowledge in "con- 

 tagious form," but he must study methods 

 for spreading the contagion ; for the steril- 

 izing outfit on the side of the student is all 

 too often wonderfully efficient in its work- 

 ing. 



I desire to give expression to a conviction 

 that some infiuence — whether the increased 

 pressure of the times in which we live, or 

 the alleged materialistic tendencies of these 

 times, or the increased absorption of the 

 science teacher in his specialty, it is diffi- 

 cult to determine— some influence, I say — 

 seems to be operating to diminish the in- 

 terest on the part of younger teachers of 

 science in breadth of culture. In technical 

 institutions particularly, it is vital to the 

 best results that the younger students espe- 

 cially should be made to appreciate that 

 even the grade of professional position 

 which they will ultimately fill will depend 

 upon their ability to view their own pro- 

 fession broadly, upon their ability to take 

 their proper part in community life, and 

 upon their ability to have an avocation 

 which will relieve the tension of uninter- 

 rupted and often anxious thought along 



one line. Mere preaching will not accom- 

 plish this end ; but men who are themselves 

 real examples of the enrichment which 

 comes into life from breadth of interests 

 can by simple contact do an untold amount 

 of good — and that, too, when they them- 

 selves least suspect it. We need more men 

 of this type, and I believe we can get more 

 when it is possible to improve the living 

 conditions of the junior members of the 

 instructing staff, so that there is somewhat 

 more time for that personal development 

 which is too often postponed now, because 

 of the exigencies of the early years of 

 teaching. 



And now we come to the crowning joy 

 of the teacher, the joy of helpfulness. 

 Fortunately, he may often also experience 

 the delights of conquest known to the in- 

 vestigator; but, as a teacher, his keenest 

 satisfaction must be found in the contact 

 with young men, and in the consciousness 

 that his efforts have made some dark places 

 less confusing and obscure, and that life 

 is to have more and a better meaning for 

 some men because of his association with 

 them. He must, as Professor Palmer points 

 out, "be willing to be forgotten," in that 

 he must not set a desire for popular ap- 

 proval in the place of real helpfulness, and, 

 unless he courts disappointments, he must 

 not expect an expression of gratitude or 

 even of appreciation on the part of the few 

 who take any notice of him which is in any 

 way commensurate with the effort which 

 he knows that he has put out in their be- 

 half. But the sympathetic, helpful, well- 

 informed teacher may expect to make warm 

 and lasting friends in a larger measure than 

 almost any one else. I believe that any 

 teacher, whether of junior, senior or ad- 

 vanced students, who does not so far gain 

 the good will of his pupils that they feel 

 that his relation to each is in some measure 

 personal rather than merely professional, 



