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Page 1: FROM THE SCRAPBOOK OF A TEACHER OF SCIENCE

826 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICSi

train students in scientific habits of thought. It has been pointedout before that it is of great importance that a student learnshow to apply the principles of physics to new problems. In-dependently of how we classify our aims, there are some veryimportant features, perhaps the most important, that cannotbe taught by the lecture method. Students learn how to thinkonly by thinking. They learn how to apply principles of physicsto new situations only by doing it. They need a great deal ofhelp and guidance in learning to apply these principles. Theyneed a method of teaching which can be used only in £>mall classes.

If a student is to receive this type of training that is so valu-able, not only must the class be small, preferably about fifteen,but the teacher of that class must use the "developing" method.He must not do most of the talking. He should not merely quizor ask students to "recite." He should expect the students todiscuss things. Where textbook assignments have been madetime should not be wasted duplicating what is clear in the text-book.

FROM THE SCRAPBOOK OF A TEACHER OF SCIENCE.

Being some observations of the great and the near-great on the nature of theseveral sciences and on the art of living in general, preserved occasionallywithout prejudice hut reproduced always with mental reservations.

BY DUANE ROLLER.

Very late in life, when he was studying geometry, some one said toLacydes,."Is it then a time for you to be learning now?" "If it is not,"he replied, "when will it be?"�Diogenes Lacrtius, Greek author, in TheLives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.

The starving chymist in his golden viewsSupremely blest, the poet in his muse.

�Alexander Pope, English poet and critic.It is certain that a serious attention to the sciences and liberal arts

softens and humanizes the temper, and cherishes those fine emotions inwhich true virtue and honor consist. It rarely, very rarely happens thata man of taste and learning is not, at least, an honest man, whateverfrailties may attend him.�David Hume, English historian and philosopher.They spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell

better than they pronounce.�Mark Twain in The Innocents Abroad.Steam is no stronger now than it was a hundred years ago, but it is put

to better use.�Ralph Waldo Emerson.It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as

superstitions.�Thomas Henry Huxley in The Coming Age of the Originof the Species.Grandeur consists in form, and not in size; and to the eye of the philoso-

pher, the curve drawn on a paper two inches long, is just as magnificienfc,just as symbolic of divine mysteries and melodies, as when embodied inthe span of some cathedral roof.�Charles Kingsley.

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