100 
Frederic E. Clements 
task of the teacher who would investigate his own teaching. Since 
university teachers are practically all specialists, it is not strange 
that they should have fallen into the almost universal error of 
teaching their subject rather than the student. Indeed, they rarely 
teach the subject, but only that fragment in which they are inter¬ 
ested. Again, this statement will be sharply challenged by a certain 
type of teacher, but a glance at his courses will always reveal where 
his primary interest lies. Until the teacher is convinced that the 
student is vastly more important than the subject and hence that 
his interests must be controlling, he is unprepared for an adequate 
study of his problem. In this connection one of the greatest illusions 
of the average professor is that facts are unimportant and that only 
the great principles of his subject are worth being taught. This dis¬ 
closes a curious misconception of the role of facts in the development 
of science, as well as of the principle of recapitulation, in accordance 
with which the mental development of the individual must reflect 
that of the race. It is only through facts that the student can find 
his own way to principles, just as it was done by scientists before 
him, and it is a sad mistake to assume that this can be discovered 
for him by the professor. In short, the student must himself be an 
investigator to whom facts are the indispensable materials with 
which he builds. 
The inquiring teacher will discover that there is but one objective 
worthy at once of true teaching and of life’s opportunities. This is 
the training of students to be investigators from the outset, and in 
general courses even more than in special ones, since they afford 
the only chance of such training for the great majority. He does 
not need to trouble himself over any fancied difference in the needs 
of the general and special students in elementary courses, since to 
acquire the spirit and method of investigation is to give each the 
most valuable thing possible. Such teaching involves definite and 
detailed training to observe, to experiment, to think, correlate and 
apply, and the use of processes and materials to develop interest 
and knowledge that will be permanent, useful, and usable. It should 
yield the largest possible human return in the field of botany, but it 
should go far beyond this, and give human values in insight, vision, 
and objectivity, that are indispensable to social progress and can 
be secured in no other way. Science itself can be made to contribute 
as readily to war and reaction as to peace and progress, and it is 
only by teaching the research spirit in all things that ethics can be 
made the ruling force in civilisation. 
