62 



botanical object most familiar to the pupil's parents and there- 

 fore the most likely to maintain their respect. On the other 

 hand a seed suggests the farm and the average city parent, thinks, 

 if he thinks about it at all, that farm topics do not belong in a 

 city high school. I may seem to be emphasizing too much the 

 parent's opinion of things, but the strongest ally of any subject 

 is the sympathy and cooperation of the parents. I am not saying 

 this in a spirit of opportunism. But if we believe our subject is 

 worth while and good for the pupils we should do everything 

 possible to disarm criticism from the home and by a judicious 

 amount of tact and resourcefulness lead both parents and school 

 officials around to our way of thinking. There is an old saying 

 and a true one: "You cannot catch flies with vinegar." So 

 do not begin your subject with an altogether strange or uninter- 

 esting topic. 



In connection with this let me repeat a story I heard a short 

 time ago about a parent's objection to botany. This parent had 

 a daughter studying botany in one of our suburban high schools. 

 One day he asked her the name of the tree in front of his house. 

 The girl did not happen to know the name and the father began 

 to wonder what kind of botany his daughter was studying. 

 Thereupon he called upon his daughter's teacher and politely 

 told him that botany should be thrown out of the schools and 

 something more useful put in its place, since his daughter could 

 not tell one tree from another. In answer to this complaint the 

 teacher said: "My dear Sir, naming and identifying trees is but 

 a small and insignificant part of botany, ^^'hat we teach is the 

 more fundamental life processes; then later on if we have the 

 time we take up classification." Was that teacher right? 

 Substantially and in the matter of content, yes. But in the 

 manner of approaching his subject or parent as the case may be, 

 I think that he was wrong. The parent's criticism may have 

 been captious and insincere, but he had some grounds for it just 

 the same. 



Now as to the way in which we should go about the detailed 

 treatment of the tree or shrub. If I began with the fall term I 

 would start with the leaves and their structure. After that I 



