4 WHY AND HOW WE STUDY BIOLOGY 



thinking for them. They believe almost anything they are told 

 without taking the trouble to investigate the truth of it. Politi- 

 cians are able to lead the public around by the nose, because 

 people are too indolent to find out the truth for themselves. The 

 study of science ought to make young people disgusted with such 

 lack of thinking. After one has experimented, observed, and read 

 about scientific findings and facts he is not so easily fooled and 

 he wants to be shown, not told. This open-mindedness should 

 come through the study of science. A boy or girl who has learned 

 to think straight will be more likely to five straight and be just 

 that much more worthy a citizen of tomorrow. 



Biology in its relation to society. The study of biology should 

 be part of the education of every boy and girl, because society itself 

 is founded upon the principles which biology teaches. Plants and 

 animals are living things, each taking what it can from its sur- 

 roundings; they enter into competition with one another, and 

 those which are the best fitted for fife outstrip the others. Health 

 and strength of body and of mind are factors in man which tell in 

 winning. The strong may hand down to their offspring the 

 characteristics which make them the winners. An understanding 

 of the laws of heredity ought to make each one of us better able to 

 assume the duties of parenthood, duties which all too often are not 

 understood by the boy and girl of today. 



Biology should develop character. Finally, if one studies 

 biology with earnest purpose he cannot help but gain in moral and 

 ethical character through the unfolding of truth and the knowledge 

 gained of the working of the laws of nature in the everyday world 

 around us. As Shakespeare once said, # a seeker in the great out-of- 

 doors : 



" Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 

 Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 



Where we should study biology. In a modern high school a 

 good deal of time is spent by boys and girls in outside activities — 

 athletics, dramatics, debating, and the like ; but too little emphasis 

 has been placed on some outside interest that might come directly 

 from the study of biology. Although we must be in the schoolroom 

 much of the time, the ideal place to study biology is out-of-doors, 



