FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 15 



out life. The place where an animal or plant is found is just as 

 important a characteristic as its shape or function. Impossible 

 field excursions with large classes within school hours, which only 

 bring confusion to inflexible school programs, are not necessary to 

 accomplish this result. Properly administered, it is without 

 doubt one of our most efficient devices for developing biological 

 ideas, but the laboratory should be kept in its proper relation to 

 the other means at our disposal and never be allowed to degenerate 

 either into a place for vacuous drawing exercises or a biological 

 morgue where dead remains are viewed." 



Teaching to think is not a sinecure for the teacher. But by 

 proper use of the laboratory material and the laboratory period, 

 we may make a brave start toward this goal. One preconceived 

 notion of a laboratory period is a. time in which the pupil works 

 alone from his specimen in order to interpret something which you 

 and I know is there but of which he is ignorant. The method of 

 Agassiz may be fitted for the graduate university student, but 

 it must be modified for the immature pupil of the high school. 

 We must throw away our college and high school laboratory 

 conception and place ourselves in the laboratory as a pupil. Be 

 a leader in a discussion which will center around the specimens 

 in the pupil's hands ; present, in connection with the laboratory 

 material, some definite problems relating if possible to some phase 

 of activity of the material in hand, something vital in the mind of 

 the pupil. Lead the discussion (using the printed questions that 

 follow, but augment them with others that will naturally arise 

 during the discussion) toward the solution of some definite phase 

 of the problem in hand. Allow conversation among the pupils ; 

 get as many ideas from different pupils as you can; pit the 

 brighter ones against each other and the spirit of competition wiU 

 incite the dull ones to add their mites. But guide the discussion 

 toward a goal, — that is your function as a teacher. Do not be 

 afraid to tell when it is time to give information and do not be 

 afraid to say, " I don't know." 



Ultimately the time will come, when the discussion of facts as 

 pupils see them has reached the place where a conclusion may 

 safely be reached. Now is the place for the teacher, again for- 



