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difficulties, the measurements can be made, and that a man of 

 science- can, if he will, be as scientific in thinking about human 

 beings and their control by education, as in thinking about any 

 fact of nature." 



THE BEST METHODS OF TEACHING BOTANY 

 TO /SCHOOL STUDENTS* 



It would seem that the title of the present address should read 

 The Method of Teaching Botany, since I should argue that there 

 is only one method deserving mention, namely the experimental. 

 Perhaps I should say that I do not underestimate the value of 

 purely observational processes; but unless these lead up to some 

 sort of experimental trial or test it would seem that such method 

 is inadequate in scientific education. Students of agriculture 

 are concerned chiefly with the behavior of plants rather than 

 with the form of plants. One can scarcely imagine circumstances 

 under which a farmer would find it necessary to describe in 

 technical language the form of a leaf or the structure of a flower. 

 The important thing for him is to know what the functions of 

 the various parts are and how they behave. If he knows this, 

 he may then go further if he will. The inference from this is 

 that our education should aim at cultivating the habit of mind 

 which looks for the exact behavior of plants and is able to sift out 

 the causes of variation in behavior. In the brief time at my 

 disposal, I can do no more than to point out some fundamental 

 ideas underlying the successful application of the method of 

 experimentation. 



In the first place, the proper attitude of mind in the teacher is 

 most essential. He must have constantly before his mind the 

 fact that plants are living organisms. To be sure they do not 

 move as do animals and we therefore are sometimes slow to 

 regard them as being as much alive as animals are; and one of 

 the practical difficulties in education is to get our pupils to realize 

 this. If plants are living, then the idea of change constitutes 



* From an article by Professor F. E. Lloyd in a report on Agricultural and 

 Industrial Education, Department of Agriculture, Montgomery, Alabama. 



