BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 7, pp. 315-326 February 25, 1896 



RELATIONS OF GEOLOGIC SCIENCE TO EDUCATION 



ANNUAL ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, N. S. SHALER 



(Read before the Society December 27, 1895^ 

 CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 315 



Eelationship of teaching and research defined 316 



Interdependence between research and instruction in geology 317 



Value of geological education and methods of transmission 318 



Comprehensive character of geology 318 



Divisions of the science 320 



Class-room instruction 320 



Methods of field teaching 321 



Difficulties encountered in field teaching 322 



Undesirability of teaching geology to immature students 324 



Expert work and its influence and requirements 324 



Conclusion 325 



Introduction 



The custom has been established which requires the retiring President 

 of this Society, as other societies which have for their purpose the ad- 

 vancement of science, to set forth his views concerning matters related 

 to the interests which the association seeks to promote. This custom 

 evidently rests on the reasonable presumption that the officer during 

 his term of service has been led by his duties to consider how the cause 

 which he represents may be promoted, how its store of truth may be 

 enlarged, and in what manner it may best be made to serve the interests 

 of mankind. This task may be essayed either by a survey of the work 

 which has recently been accomplished in the science, with appropriate 

 comment on the trends and results of the endeavors, or the essayist may 

 restrict his undertaking to some one portion of the field with which he 

 is conversant in the hope that he may be able to present the fruits of 

 his own labors in a way which is likely to be profitable to others. For 

 various reasons I have chosen the latter of these alternatives and have' 

 taken for my subject the relations of geological science to education. 



XXXV— Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 7, 1895. (315) 



