670 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1010 



striiction. So long as every student must ap- 

 pear before every instructor we have the 

 tendency either unduly to reduce the num- 

 ber of instructoi-s or unduly to reduce the 

 time the individual instructor teaches. 

 Either horn of the dilemma is dangerous. 

 To be effective, clinical teaching must ap- 

 proach the ideal of individual teaching. 

 Not how many students an instructor 

 teaches, but how well he instructs a limited 

 number, should be the criterion of his use- 

 fulness to a school and of his own sense of 

 satisfaction with his work. As I have said 

 earlier, nothing is worse than a whirlwind 

 program which sends the students in vor- 

 tices of section instruction so rapidly from 

 teacher to teacher that no one can impress 

 his personality upon the students. The be- 

 lief that every teacher must teach every 

 student, long since given up in colleges of 

 arts and sciences, is pernicious and inex- 

 cusable. If your ideal of teaching is merely 

 to reach as large a number of prospective 

 consultants as possible, stop teaching and 

 buy stock in a patent medicine company. 



THE CURRICULUM AND THE DEPARTMENTS 



As regards whole departments of instruc- 

 tion as distinguished from individual in- 

 structors, certain principles of curriculum 

 making may be mentioned. A proper re- 

 gard for the "born long" and "born 

 short" demands greater elasticity in de- 

 partmental procedure than is usually the 

 case in our American schools. There should 

 be better provision for the irregular stu- 

 dent. Opportunities for laboratory work 

 should be afforded at other than scheduled 

 hours. Men should be encouraged to work 

 alone or with a minimum of supervision. 

 Let us limber up our laboratory organiza- 

 tions. Let our motto be salvation by indi- 

 vidual work rather than salvation by formal 

 creed. "Laboratory" should be synony- 



mous with "Opportunity" not with 

 ' ' Drudgery. ' ' 



The offering of electives is one important 

 means of liberalizing a department. This 

 system allows the instructor to vary at least 

 a part of his work from year to year. It 

 enables him to teach to the interested few 

 those subjects in which he is immediately 

 interested. It diminishes the temptation to 

 introduce the instructor's fads as part of 

 his required courses. It broadens the inter- 

 ests of a department by giving scope for all 

 its members. 



The elective system allows the young in- 

 structor who is assisting in a large required 

 course to gain independence and confidence 

 by conducting a small elective course in his 

 special line. This is important. 



THE CURRICULUM AND THE SCHOOL AS A 

 WHOLE 



Now as regards the school as a whole, cer- 

 tain principles of curriculum making may 

 be formulated. It goes without saying that 

 conditions as regards the quality of instruct- 

 ors, students and material facilities must 

 vary among institutions. They ought not 

 to adopt identical curricula,^ The Ameri- 

 can Medical Association and Association of 

 American Medical Colleges have presented 

 models which are very valuable as points 

 of departure. A curriculum committee 

 should consult other schools, but not with 

 the purpose of adopting their curricula 

 unchanged. Bach school should work out 

 its curriculum with broad wisdom to suit 

 its own conditions. It would be worse than 

 folly, for example, if small and weak 

 schools should attempt a wholesale adop- 

 tion of the elective work which I so strongly 



6 Wlile this statement is true, it may also be 

 stated that important advantages would follow a 

 substantial agreement among the schools as to the 

 minimum requirements in each branch. For one 

 thing, migration of students, at present very diffi- 

 cult, would be facilitated. 



