FUNCTIONS OF TEACHING 347 



accimiulate vast bodies of detailed information without being able ever 

 to arrange them in such a way as to serve as other than an impediment 

 to advance by reason of clogging of the machinery through the pressure 

 of disorganized and unrelated materials. Others see each subject in its 

 simplest form, and may serve as guides to indicate the direction in which 

 larger movements will go, but are limited in the use of their judgment 

 l)y reason of lack of relation between general principles and the details 

 through which the principles must in their application be ultimately ex- 

 pressed. One fundamental principle of university instruction involves 

 the larger organization which makes possible a view showing us knowl- 

 edge perfect in the simplicity of the interlocking parts and infinite as to 

 the details of expression. 



(3) The second view of university instruction, which we have just 

 discussed, gives the factors of discipline and order as the most funda- 

 mental and significant. Contrasted with this idea, we have the consid- 

 erations of interest and pleasure in the inquiry into a given subject de- 

 veloped through stimulation in the statement of the instructor. While 

 it may be true that many students are not worth while, by reason of their 

 constitutional limitations in relation to the subject which they approach 

 or with reference to the particular instructor with whom they come in 

 contact, there can be no doubt that a great number of students also fail 

 because of not having set before them, through the stimulation of clear 

 presentation, the really fundamental ideas basic to subjects in which they 

 might naturally be interested. 



(-i) Developing the power to do constructive or creative work consti- 

 tutes the highest object of the student. The ability of the instructor to 

 bring out this quality of mind is the greatest gift. The desire to construct 

 generally arrives most readily through participation in constructive work, 

 and involves the idea of research as a normal part of the program of the 

 university. This view can be presented or suggested in realistic manner 

 only by those who are engaged in actual research. In other words, the 

 institution which fails to give proper opportunity to develop its faculty 

 in constructive work fails to secure the results of highest type in its 

 teaching. 



In the statements that have been presented up to the present stage of 

 this paper it has been my purpose to make clear that teaching, as ex- 

 pressed in colleges and universities, serves its highest purpose as training 

 when it develops in the student the ability to see with a true perspective, 

 and to use his subject as a means for constructive effort. At the same 

 time it has become evident that the educational institution is not only 

 the most important molding influence for all future investigators, but 



