324 N. S. SHALRR — RELATIONS OF GEOLOGIC SCIENCE TO EDUCATION. 



partment has been long established and is favorably conditioned to give 

 instruction, the lack of a large attendance under a system of free election 

 by students may be taken as an indication that while the elementary 

 didactic presentation of the science attracts the greater number of the 

 youths of our colleges, the higher branches are less attractive than the 

 other similarly difficult work of the indoor learning. The conclusion is 

 that geology in the larger sense of the term is, at least in the present con- 

 dition of culture, an interest for a few chosen s))irits who are so fortunate 

 as to be born with a share of the world sense, or at least with an aptitude 

 for studies which demands a measure of the primitive man which is not 

 to be found in the most of our supercivilized folk. 



UNDESIRABILITY OF TEACHING GEOLOGY TO IMMATURE STUDENTS. 



In the demand which is now made for.a beginning of all our sciences 

 in the secondary schools it is proposed to include geology in the list and 

 to set boys and girls of from fourteen to seventeen years of age at work 

 upon the elementary work of the learning. For my own part, while it 

 seems to me that some general notions concerning the history of the earth 

 may very well be given to children, and this as information, it is futile 

 to essay any study in this science which is intended to make avail of 

 its larger educative influences with immature youths. The educative 

 value of geology depends upon an al^ility to deal with tlie large concep- 

 tions of space, time and the series of developments of energy which can 

 only be compassed by mature minds. Immature youths, even if they 

 intend to win the utmost profit from geology, would be better occupied 

 in stud3'ing the elementary tangible facts of those sciences such as cliem- 

 istr}", physics or biology, sciences which in their synthesis constitute 

 geology, rather than in a vain endeavor to deal in an immediate way with 

 a learning which in a good measure to be profitable has to be approached 

 with a well developed mind. The very fact that an}^ considerable geo- 

 logical jn'oblem is likel}^ to involve in its discussion some knowledge of 

 physics, chemistry, zoology and botany is sufficient reason for i)ostponing 

 the study until the pupil is nearly adult. 



Expert Work and its Influence and Requirements. 



Besides the relations to society which may be established by his i^osi- 

 tion as a teacher, the geologist is from the character of his studies 

 much called on for another kind of help, that which pertains to the de- 

 velopment of earth resources or to the litigation which concerns earth 

 yalues. In this field the relations are more critical and more perplexing 



