April 22, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



233 



prove the wisdom of these plans. And whether this confidence 

 be misplaced or not, they think they have a right to expect that 

 no unfriendly attitude will be taken towards the college while the 

 important experiments only recently begun are being pressed 

 steadily to a decisive conclusion. 



Very sincerely yours, 



E. M. Gallaudet. 



THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE.^ 



The subject chosen for this paper, The Teaching of Science, is 

 a broad one ; far too broad for more than a very superficial treat- 

 ment in the time allowed, but it is nay purpose rather to call at- 

 tention to certain general ideas in which too much of our modern 

 science teaching seems to be at fault, and to try to suggest lines in 

 which we may hope for improvement. While I use the term 

 " Science," I have particular reference to the so-called natural 

 sciences, though perhaps the ideas are capable of a wider applica- 

 tion. 



Among these natural sciences there are certain ones to which 

 my attention has been more closely drawn, but I believe the 

 principles which should be at the basis of instruction in them will 

 apply equally well to all. 



Why do we study the sciences? how far do we attain our ends 

 in this study? and is it possible for us to attain them more com- 

 pletely than by our present methods ? These are the three ques- 

 tions I desire to consider. 



1. Why do we study the sciences? AVere we to judge from 

 the great mass of science teaching of the present day, we would 

 be obliged to answer unhesitatingly that the natural sciences are 

 taught chiefly at least, for the purpose of acquiring certain facts 

 which are supposed to be of the necessary stock in trade of a well 

 educated man or woman, or perhaps I should speak more correctly, 

 were I to say, facts which every well educated person ought once 

 to have known sufiiciently well to have passed an examination in 

 them ; in as much as, for better, for worse, most have forgotten 

 a great share of these acquired facts. I say were we to judge by 

 the way science is taught, though few teachers would admit this 

 mere acquisition of facts to be their aim in teaching. If we should 

 inquire of these teachers, they would undoubtedly tell us of the 

 " disciplinary value, " that vague expression often heard and so 

 unsatisfactory to the pupil, as he repeats his amo, amas, amat, or 

 pauses to rest on his pons asinorum. 



In all education we have two aims ; the direct furnishing of the 

 mind with a store of facts and the development of the mind so 

 that it can utilize these facts and attain others; we teach, and we 

 teach how to learn. Now there are undoubtedly, a vast multitude 

 of facts in the natural sciences, which are of practical value in 

 every-day life; but after all theseare of little importance compared 

 with the tremendous development of the mind which may be 

 and ought to be gained by this class of studies. 



The natural sciences are pre-eminently the studies to develope 

 the reasoning powers ; every step has been and can be logically 

 worked out from the preceding ; nowhere else do we find that 

 gathering of facts, perhaps very few in number, under an hypothe- 

 sis, and then, by gaining new facts by study and experimentation, 

 the development of the hypothesis into a theory and, it may be, 

 a law. The best instruction in logic I e^er had was in a class of 

 a dozen oi' so, where we had each made quite a series of appa- 

 rently unconnected experiments in physics, then were given the 

 task of arranging our descriptions of these experiments in their 

 proper sequence, discussing in the class room our arrangements 

 and defending each his own choice. 



The chief aim in the study of science should be this develop- 

 ment of the reasoning power ; the teaching of independent 

 thought; and the acquisition of facts in themselves, however im- 

 portant some of them may be, should invariably be made subor- 

 dinate to this. I ought in this connection to refer to what is 

 often spoken of as a very important aim of science teaching, that 

 of training the power of observation. Of course when rightly 

 studied, science does train this power, and even the most superficial 

 elementarj- course in any science cannot fail to make the scholar 

 ' Read before the Kentucky College Association at its latest meeting. 



now and then a little more interested in observing what goes on 

 around him than he otherwise would be; nevertheless the train- 

 ing of this power is of value only just as far as it is a means of 

 training the reasoning power. A man may have a marvellous 

 gift of seeing everything and seeing it accurately; but this gift is 

 of value to him only as far as he can utilize it as a basis of 

 thought; and therefore I would hold that the training of the 

 power of observation is embraced under the all important aim of 

 science teaching, the development of the mind, the development 

 of the power of thought. 



This should be the chief aim of all instruction in natural science ; 

 all else is of little use. 



2. Now how far does the instruction given in our institutions 

 of learning, our schools, academies, colleges, and universities, 

 tend to carry out this idea ? 



Until until quite a recent time there has been little or no in- 

 struction in natural science given in our lower schools; in our 

 cities at the present time there is more or less of an attempt being 

 made to introduce the study of chemistry and physics. I leave 

 out of account for the present the kindergarten, where there 

 seems to have sprung up a germ of the true idea of science teach- 

 ing. The most that is expected in our common schools is 

 that the teacher shall hold a few recitations from a text-book, 

 from which the scholar is supposed to familiarize himself with a 

 large or small number of facts and possibly to learn the state- 

 ment of a few laws or theories. In the higher schools, the acade- 

 mies, and some of the colleges, a somewhat greater task is at- 

 tempted ; here the text-book is supposed to cover practically the 

 whole science and a correspondingly great number of facts is- 

 sought to be memorized ; with a couple of recitations a week, 

 the student is expected to go through ' ' fourteen weeks in chem- 

 istry," or physics, or geology, and to have learned the gist of the 

 whole science. Here we have a mere feat of memory, of just as 

 much value, perhaps, as the committing to memory of so many 

 lines of " Paradise Lost," certainly no more. In many, perhaps 

 most, cases the teacher is as ignorant of the subject as the scholar, 

 and must have the text-book continually open in order to recog- 

 nize if the answers are correct. One college in Kentucky adver- 

 tises to give complete, thorough, and practical courses in each of 

 the sciences in a term of ten weeks; think of acquiring chemis- 

 try, physics, geology and astronomy in less than a year, and not 

 neglecting other studies in the meantime ! Of late, however, it 

 is coming to be very generally recognized that scientific instruc- 

 tion cannot be imparted without experiment, and so the teacher 

 performs before the class some of the simpler experiments. This 

 is indeed a step in the right direction, but in most cases only a 

 very short step. An experiment merely as something for a class 

 to look at or be entertained by is valueless; indeed the only value- 

 of an experiment is in making clearer the principle it is intended 

 to illustrate. If it fails to do this, it fails to accomplish any thing. 

 I remember asking a young lady, who had a few months pre- 

 viously passed a fine examination in chemistry in one of our 

 higher institutions, if she remembered how oxygen was made, 

 " Oh yes," she said, " why ! the professor took something black 

 and something white, and that was oxygen." Some features at 

 least of the experiment had made an impression. In most of the 

 colleges and academies for ladies, I think it is no exaggeration to 

 say that science study as usually conducted is of no value ; the 

 only science which there is an attempt to study at all thoroughly 

 is botany; and even here it is questionable to my mind if the stu- 

 dent get from this any thing which justifies the time put upon it, 

 except that incidentally the fresh air exercise obtained in gather- 

 ing specimens provides that which is much needed by all young 

 ladies. The end usually sought is ability to analyse, by the aid 

 of tables, the common plants, rather than the study of these- 

 plants. In no other science is the absurdity of this method of 

 study so apparent. In the chemical laboratory it is true that the 

 use of analytical tables is a prominent feature, but there seems to 

 be at least a practical end attained. Imagine a study of zoology 

 or of mineralogy which should find its end, not in studying the 

 animal or the mineral, but in merely finding out by a set of arti- 

 ficial tables what it is, and we see the fallacy in calling it science. 

 I believe it would be better for all students of botany, and I think 



