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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 987 



ing, to prosecute research and to add to the 

 store of our knowledge. The present tend- 

 ency to inithlessly sacrifice sums of money, 

 as well as the energies of members of a uni- 

 versity faculty in performing tasks which 

 should be assigned to teachers in the ele- 

 mentary and primary schools, is a serious 

 menace not only to the intellectual life, but 

 to the mental health of the nation. The 

 absurd pedagogical tasks imposed upon uni- 

 versity professors of attempting to give to 

 mature students the mental mechanisms 

 characteristic of men of culture, which 

 should have been acquired either at home 

 or in the kindergarten, represent forms of 

 servitude that should not be tolerated in 

 these institutions. 



4. As regards the actual training of 

 teachers competent to approach the study 

 of educational problems from the biological 

 point of view, much can be accomplished by 

 creating in the universities increased facil- 

 ities for study in this direction. 



The establishment of departments of bio- 

 logical psychology, independent of any 

 direct affiliation with those of philosophy, 

 is desirable. At present, philosophy and 

 psychology suffer from the effects of an 

 unnatural union continued merely out of 

 respect for tradition, and a disinclination 

 to do that which is right in the face of 

 adverse criticism. 



If the universities intend to become 

 centers for the study of human activities 

 with a view to making life pleasanter and 

 more effective, they should renounce any 

 half-hearted interest in the development of 

 biological psychology as indicative of a lack 

 of intelligent sympathetic appreciation in- 

 terest in the solution of problems having a 

 vital bearing upon the progress of our 

 civilization. In universities where this di- 

 vision has already been accomplished by 

 which philosophy and psychology have 

 been set free to develop normally, it is to 



be hoped ample provision will soon be made 

 for the establishment of biological psychol- 

 ogy upon a basis indicating that at last hu- 

 man intelligence has awakened to appreci- 

 ate "the true study of mankind is man." 



In addition to the extension of present 

 courses and facilities for training teachers, 

 ample provision should be made for instruc- 

 tion along special lines in our medical 

 schools, as has been suggested by Professor 

 David Spence Hill ; particularly in connec- 

 tion with the work in the psychiatric clinics. 

 Instruction in this particular field should 

 be directed to the demonstration of meth- 

 ods for studying the human individual and 

 for giving teachers an opportunity to be- 

 come familiar with the early symptoms of 

 imperfect adjustment, and the treatment 

 applicable to individual cases. 



I have attempted to indicate a few of the 

 essentials of an education when the process 

 is considered as a means of directing the 

 activities of living beings. Education is 

 one of the youngest of all the arts. Its 

 renaissance followed the birth of the bio- 

 logical sciences. Long held in bondage by 

 those afflicted with an hypertrophied his- 

 torical sense or cultural mysticism, its 

 growth was retarded by man's whimsical 

 and inconstant interest in the study of his 

 own activities. If teachers and students 

 were compelled to walk backwards with 

 their gaze constantly fixed upon the monu- 

 ments of the past it was no wonder they 

 stumbled and often fell while climbing the 

 mountains. The struggle to become free 

 from the paralyzing influences of tradition 

 and superstition continues, but hopes for 

 progress and for the reduction of human 

 ineificiency, waste and suffering depend 

 primarily for their realization upon the 

 recognition of the general biological prin- 

 ciples which actually determine human life 

 and human ideals. Stewart Paton 



Princeton, N. J. 



