THE TEXT-BOOK AS AN ELEMENT IN SCIENCE TEACHING. 273 



scientific record — to study the text-book profitably. The pupil's eye is the index 

 to his thought, and the teacher knows when to supply aid; and a few apt ques- 

 tions will serve to determine the kind needed. 



Now, the more the teacher's resources are aided by illustrative apparatus and 

 properly arranged cabinets, the better. Objective representation for what cannot 

 otherwise be conceived should always be at hand, and much depends on their 

 judicious use. Should collections, objects, apparatus and illustrations fail to 

 penetrate the understanding of pupils exceptionally dull, the teacher is then, to 

 the extent of his time, justified in "taking to the woods," with the sole object of 

 clearing up the dark point, returning when this is accomplished in order to avoid 

 the mental distraction of noticing too many things at once. Pupils want more 

 concentration and less diffusion. A continual and unnecessary interposition of 

 objects may cultivate perception but it sacrifices imagination and reflection. 



The extreme notion that pupils should be relieved from books in scientific 

 study, is only a single phase of object-teaching, the perverted use of which is 

 now foremost in the ranks of educational crazes. True objective-teaching is not 

 here assailed, but only that perverted use of which it maintains that a thing can 

 not be known unless the learner is subjected to bodily contact with it. The use 

 of objects in teaching is to bring subjects of thought within the grasp of the im- 

 agination. When the time arrives in the pupil's mental evolution, that a subject 

 can be clearly and accurately conceived without a material illustration, any in- 

 tervention of the object consumes time and weakens the noblest faculties of 

 mind. To know just when the object can profitably be dispensed with, is a vital 

 element in leaching. The continual parade of objects whose properties are 

 already well known to pupils is as disgusting to them as the absence of those 

 they cannot understand is discouraging. There are good and well meaning 

 teachers laboring under the delusion that a pupil cannot know a thing without 

 having exercised his senses upon it. Let us see where this notion pursued 

 to its ultimate consequences will lead us. Taking the single branch of zoology 

 as an example, this theory would limit the knowledge of the naturalist to those 

 animate forms which he could personally see, examine and dissect. If his knowl- 

 edge of the animal kingdom by this means ever became considerable, he would 

 have to spread himself even beyond the possibilities of a specialist in this one 

 study. 



Now the fashionable and senseless custom that justifies the mutilation by 

 every student of science, of all forms of defenceless animal life that is available, 

 would be amusing were it not for its barbarity. This fooHsh aping of the scien- 

 tific specialist who is adding useful data to his special branch, by tyros in science 

 who have not even learned the first principles of classification is, to say the least, 

 an inexcusable and misguided zeal. In studying anatomy the pupil should have 

 clear notions of the essential elements of animal structure. The nature of bone 

 tissue, fluids, and organs can be known by the close examination of a single 

 animal taken as a type. If the modifications of these elements as found in other 



VIII-18 



